'If a teenage girl would have had Instagram during the Holocaust'
An ambitious initiative sets to expose and engage teenagers in Holocaust remembrance through Instagram stories recreating the true story of a girl who was murdered in Auschwitz
The Instagram account set to post short videos and photos, seen as documenting the final months in the life of Eva Hayman, a 13-year-old Hungarian, Jewish girl who perished in the Holocaust, based on her true story as documented in her journal.
Eva was born in Nagyvárad, Hungary, and started writing her journal on her 13th birthday, on February 13, 1944. Her last entry was on May 30, three months later, just three days before she was deported to Auschwitz with her family, where she was murdered.
A video trailer was launched on Sunday, and stories will be posted as of Thursday — when Israel marks Holocaust Memorial Day.
Some 78,000 users are already following the account, and many expressed support and enthusiasm for the trailer despite earlier criticism claiming the idea was inappropriate.
The project was initiated and produced by high-tech entrepreneur Mati Kochavi and his daughter, who invested millions of dollars in the filming.
The diary Eva wrote was made into a screen play and filmed in Lviv, Ukraine, with the assistance of some 400 actors, extras and production assistants.
Instagram stories and photos will showthe Eva's friends and family, the invasion of her town by Nazi forces, racial laws she had to endure.
They will also show her family being moved to the ghetto, the violence she suffered, and finally the train ride that took to the Auschwitz death camp where she died.
"This is the way to make the Holocaust accessible to the young crowd," said Kochavi. "Only 2.7 percent of the total discussion about the Holocaust around the world today, is initiated by the younger generation, which is a significant decline in comparison to previous years."
"In an age when Holocaust survivors are scarce, people's attention span is dropping and thrills are quick to achieve — there is a need to find new models of memory and testimony," said Kochavi, who hopes his initiative will show a new way to commemorate the Holocaust in today's day and age.
