Visit the Neuberger to experience the only Canadian installation of the USC Shoah Foundation's New Dimensions in Testimony, featuring four Holocaust survivor prototypes. Engage in a virtual conversation and discover the future of interactive Holocaust survivor narratives. Available through March 2018.

Call 416-631-5689 or email neuberger@ujafed.org for more information about experiencing this innovative program in Toronto.

New Dimensions in Testimony is a collection of testimonies designed as an interactive educational tool to permit students far into the future to “talk” with Holocaust survivors about their life experiences.

Though this emergent technology is still developing, the beta version already enables people to interact with the projected image of a real Holocaust survivor, which responds to questions in real time. The survivors selected for the demo project are among the 54,000 survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust and genocide whose testimonies live in the Visual History Archive. For NDT, the survivors were interviewed again, this time before 50 cameras arranged in a rig to capture a three-dimensional recording of them telling their story in a new way, by answering questions that people are most likely to ask.

The value of the project is to provide an intimate experience with eyewitnesses to history who are uniquely qualified to reflect on life.

New Dimensions in Testimony^SM is an initiative by USC Shoah Foundation to record and display testimony in a way that will preserve the dialogue between Holocaust survivors and learners far into the future. Collaborating within the project are Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, with technology by USC Institute for Creative Technologies, and concept by Conscience Display. Funding for New Dimensions in Testimony^SM was provided in part by Pears Foundation, Louis. F. Smith, Melinda Goldrich and Andrea Cayton/Goldrich Family Foundation in honor of Jona Goldrich, and Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center. Other partners include CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center. It will eventually be available at selected museums and learning institutions around the world. The Neuberger is proud to host a demo of NDT as a testing facility through January 2018. 

Years from now, New Dimensions in Testimony will be able to provide a valuable opportunity to engage with a survivor and ask them questions directly, encouraging them, each in their own way, to reflect on the deep and meaningful consequences of the Holocaust. Being able to ask a survivor questions will allow students to be active participants in their learning and develop important communication and critical-thinking skills. Being able to ask their own questions will teach students things about the Holocaust they never could learn from just reading a history book. By providing valuable points of view from someone who was there, students can better understand the human story behind the Holocaust and understand the impact it had on real people in a manner that is responsive and engaging, making history more relevant to their lives.

Learn More About NDT

Funding for New Dimensions in Testimony was provided in part by Pears Foundation and Louis F. Smith.