Some of the creators of the "TikTok Holocaust" videos painted bruises or burns on themselves using make-up. Others wore striped uniforms, imitating those worn by the prisoners in the concentration camps or wore a yellow star with the word "Jude" (Jew) printed on it - in correspondence with the yellow patch, which the Jews were forced to sew on their clothes in Nazi Germany
By: Sarah Jones, Professor of Modern Languages and German Studies, University of Birmingham. Translation: Ziv Adaki
Some of the creators of the "TikTok Holocaust" videos painted bruises or burns on themselves using make-up. Others wore striped uniforms, imitating those worn by the prisoners in the concentration camps or wore a yellow star with the word "Jude" (Jew) printed on it - in correspondence with the yellow patch that Jews were forced to sew on their clothes in Nazi Germany.
The Tiktok Holocaust trend showed users - in most cases, teenagers - uploading videos of themselves dressed as Holocaust victims entering heaven. many were enraged, Describe these photographs as "trauma porn" and even as anti-Semitic. In contrast, the creators claimed that their intentions were to educate or to raise awareness of the Holocaust.
ב"Auschwitz Museum in Birkenau" We claimed that these videos "Insulting and offensive". But we noted that for some they represented "a need to find a way to express a personal memory".
From this it can be understood that the trend ignited questions about the correct way to respectfully remember traumatic events from the past, and how expressions in the first person can be used for this purpose.
An account in the first person, of a person who lived the event and retold it, is known as "testimony". Testimony given bculture in diverse ways. Alongside the living stories of survivors of violence directed at the public, we find archives of video photographs, autobiographical writings andInnovative digital forms of expression. The things are embedded in poetry, theater, prose and other types of artistic expression.
The interviewers, the artists and the audience become involved in the testimonies of the survivors. They bear witness and join a wider community of commemoration. In order for the memory of the Holocaust to continue, documenting the stories through various means is necessary.
The young people who create the Tik Tok videos ask for testimonies about the Holocaust, which exist in their cultural environment, such as, "Schindler's List" the film of Steven Spielberg. Tiktok videos are an internet phenomenon, a meme, “Point of View", and in which the creator places the viewers in a key role in the story. The videos can be understood as an attempt by the creator to arouse empathy in the viewer.
Carmel Stephens (Carmelle Stephens), an expert on Holocaust literature from the University of Sheffield in the UK, points out that our automatic reaction against the use of new media for representations of the Holocaust is a common reaction. The question we need to ask ourselves is if the medium can fulfill two purposes: educate and perpetuate. This question is essentially a question about ethics and education. Despite the (potential) good intentions of the creators of the videos, I would argue that they failed to achieve these goals.
Appropriation, authenticity and empathy
In terms of ethics, there are two key issues here: appropriation and authenticity. The creators of the videos present experiences of violence and trauma that are not their own. This is true for all artistic representations that were not created by the survivors themselves. However, these videos, which are about 15 seconds long, do not provide the reflective space that enables what the creator seeks to achieve, unlike in the theater, a full-length film, literature or art.
The creators' attempt to imitate the experience of the victim through make-up and clothing gives the impression of a costume.cosplay” particularly sepulchral, and not an expression of a critical reference or commemoration of the past.
When we talk about Authenticity in the context of testimony, we do not necessarily mean that the testimony is completely accurate in relying on historical facts. We mean that the survivor expressed the historical events as he experienced them, that he is sincere and committed to retelling the truth of this personal experience. In this way, A revealing testimony before us the effect of violence directed towards the public on the individual.
The secondary witnesses, those who come into contact with the testimony of another, have a moral obligation to reflect this aspect of the testimony. The subjective response of the survivors to what they experienced is difficult and challenging. It may be addressed through thoughtful artistic practice, but it cannot be reduced to a 15-second meme.
Still in dispute, if this form of involvement can educate. The "point of view" meme wants to present the viewer with a kind of role play. The goal seems to be to evoke empathy that will help the viewer better understand the victim's experience. Alison Landsberg, a commemoration researcher, developed a concept called "Prosthetic memory” which explains how empathy that arises under the influence of overwhelming media, may promote political activity for others. Empathy can therefore play an important role in the study of the Holocaust, which aims to prevent discriminatory and violent behavior towards minorities.
But empathy is not a simple concept. Based on the work of the philosopher Amy Coplan (Amy Coplan), I developed A model of empathy through which testimonies are dealt with in class. The model is based on the idea that the occupation should be "other-oriented" if one wants to be politically effective in the sense I mentioned above.
The students must empathize with the survivors and identify the feelings that the survivors express (depreciation, anger), recognizing and imagining these experiences from the other person's perspective. The students should try to understand how "he" experienced it, not how "I" would experience it. Such involvement requires some distance, which is rarely achieved through simplistic role-playing.
This criticism is not to say that the young creators of these videos deserve condemnation, but that we must make sure that in addition to learning historical facts about the Holocaust (a necessary matter), we educate young people about the ethics of commemoration and remembrance.
We don't need to ban the use of a certain tool. The very successful project"infinite echo(Echo Eternal), which started in schools in the West Midlands of England in 2018 and 2019, shows how young people can work with survivor testimonies to produce sensitive and ethical content using a variety of art forms, including dance, textiles and rap.
However, we must encourage careful consideration of the means by which testimony is conveyed. A comprehensive approach is required, which addresses these issues in the study of history, language, drama and religion and in personal and social education, and even in the fields of health and economics. A broad understanding of testimony allows us to use the connections within the curriculum to ensure that young people are fully supported in their desire to remember and perpetuate.
to the article on The Conversation website
More of the topic in Hayadan:
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The expression to correspond with is heard a lot on television.
Oh, the translation, the translation... By the way, "in correspondence with" is a literal translation from English that has no meaning in Hebrew (unless the translator's language is spoiled and pretentious).
As a matter of fact, as horrible as the facts are, I'm not surprised about it. In the USA, for example, the vilification of the Holocaust began decades ago, when a slum was called a "ghetto" (and it still is today), a strict person is a "Nazi" and Trump is Hitler. Students in schools are asked to read Anne Frank's diary, and that sums up the information about the Holocaust they receive (with an emphasis on Anne's social life, which gives them the feeling that "after all, it wasn't so terrible"). The teachers themselves are ignorant of the Holocaust and the politicians use it as a tool to dig into it.
Extremely shocking...hurts the memory of the victims and survivors of the holocaust...is this a way to get famous? Testimonies and photos are only for the dear people who were lost and are no longer there and the dear survivors. Any other way is completely wrong.