Workshop of EHRI-CZ, GWZO and the Malach Center for Visual History: New Readings of Holocaust Testimony
On October 20–21, an international workshop titled New Readings of Holocaust Testimony took place, organized by EHRI-CZ, GWZO, and the Malach Center for Visual History. The workshop focused on how new technologies are transforming historical research and explored the potential of public involvement in the creation and annotation of testimony corpora (citizen science) as a valuable source for historical inquiry. During the event, leading European experts in linguistic analysis and digital humanities met with professionals who work with Holocaust survivors’ testimonies in their daily research (historians, archivists).
The workshop showcased practical approaches to analyzing testimonies through innovative digital methods and tools, such as automatic recognition and tagging of entities (people, places) in texts and linking them to authority vocabularies (NER, NEL). The program also included hands-on sessions, where participants had the opportunity to experiment with selected tools and methods based on cutting-edge technologies, including neural networks and AI-driven machine learning.
Overall, the workshop offered an inspiring space for exchanging experiences among experts from different disciplines and showcased new ways to connect historical research with technological innovation.
