This video - supported by the Europeana Research Community - presents the project ‘In search of the drowned’ and explains how it has used text and data mining to help give voice to the voiceless victims of the Holocaust.
During the Holocaust 5.8 million people were killed; most of the victims did not leave behind any record that could help reconstruct their experience. While survivor and perpetrator history has been well-studied in the last decades, the voice of the voiceless has remained a terra incognita. Today, digital history, digital humanities, and data visualisation offer new forms of inquiry and representation that can break the silence of the voiceless. By combining these emerging fields with reflective essays and an anthology of 2,700 complete English language survivor testimonies, In Search of the Drowned aims to let them speak - symbolically.
In Search of the Drowned is a joined digital project between three institutions: Yale Fortunoff Archive, USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. In this video the principal investigator, Dr. Gabor Mihaly Toth, presents the project and explains how text and data mining helped give voice to the voiceless.