Lessons of Auschwitz

“Lessons of Auschwitz” is both a social and artistic experiment dealing with the history of the Holocaust. After visiting the Memorial in Poland, Russian schoolchildren between the ages of 13 and 16 were invited to use XR film technology as a basis to express the personal experiences they had together with their knowledge and their emotional reactions to the Holocaust. In powerful, moving and creative images, they translated their individual experiences and recollections into rich collages that animate historical photo material and transform it into gloomy, blurred film sequences or that show the hand-drawn silhouettes of people dissolve. The background of this social experiment is to show how younger generations perceive history; how they can retell and reimagine it through digital art. Using innovative film technology, the students created a new form of commemorative tribute that appeals in particular to younger viewers at various sensual levels, touches them and inspires them to learn more about the Holocaust.