Principal Investigator Kurt Fendt
Co-investigator Belinda Yung
Project Website http://mitgsl.mit.edu/research-projects/holocaust-survivors
The project consists of the design and development of an interactive CD-ROM based on a variety of materials: original audiotaped interviews with German Holocaust survivors, who have become well-known writers, (excerpts of) their published works, i.e. memoirs, novels, and chronicles; historical texts, audiovisual material, photographs, maps (see attached list).
The disk attempts to fulfill a two-fold goal: to impart knowledge of a historically important period and to strengthen language skills. Making these materials written in a foreign language accessible to fourth semester students and more advanced students (for example by excerpting and providing glosses and activities) has the purpose of acquainting the students with a part of German history which is difficult to understand and difficult to teach.
The CD-ROM fulfills multiple goals: to impart knowledge of a historically important period, to engage students in interpretation and analysis, and, last but not least, to strengthen and refine language skills.
There are very few (if any) materials available, which are historically important, interesting to students, and easy to use for teaching and learning purposes. Making fascinating materials available to students in this electronic form should facilitate the task of acquainting them with a period in German history which is difficult to understand and equally difficult to teach. The processes of understanding the foreign language, as well as learning about the Holocaust, are aided by the mutually reinforcing effects of reading, seeing, listening, and doing