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Ilana Lindenblatt

👤 Speaker
322 total appearances

Appearances Over Time

Podcast Appearances

The Daily
The Sunday Read: ‘This Is the Holocaust Story I Said I Wouldn’t Write’

All these years later, further advances in technology now allowed for the questions to use non-generative artificial intelligence to map not just to the most pertinent answer, but also to the most pertinent answer by the most appropriate answerer. They call it survivor stories.

The Daily
The Sunday Read: ‘This Is the Holocaust Story I Said I Wouldn’t Write’

All these years later, further advances in technology now allowed for the questions to use non-generative artificial intelligence to map not just to the most pertinent answer, but also to the most pertinent answer by the most appropriate answerer. They call it survivor stories.

The Daily
The Sunday Read: ‘This Is the Holocaust Story I Said I Wouldn’t Write’

The premise works because researchers realize that people visiting the museum and listening to testimonies tend to ask the same 100 questions over and over, without much variation. Joshua Mack, Senior Vice President of Marketing at the museum, invited me to try the technology out before it was publicly available. The display is an oblong rectangle, like a standard full-length mirror.

The Daily
The Sunday Read: ‘This Is the Holocaust Story I Said I Wouldn’t Write’

The premise works because researchers realize that people visiting the museum and listening to testimonies tend to ask the same 100 questions over and over, without much variation. Joshua Mack, Senior Vice President of Marketing at the museum, invited me to try the technology out before it was publicly available. The display is an oblong rectangle, like a standard full-length mirror.

The Daily
The Sunday Read: ‘This Is the Holocaust Story I Said I Wouldn’t Write’

I asked a question. Me, what was the Holocaust like? And a woman named Branya Brandman appeared on the screen. In a Brooklyn-inflected Eastern European accent that was as familiar to me as my own voice. She replied, The major premise of the Holocaust was to dehumanize the human, the Jewish race, to elevate the German race, and they did it with brutality, which was unprecedented in human history.

The Daily
The Sunday Read: ‘This Is the Holocaust Story I Said I Wouldn’t Write’

I asked a question. Me, what was the Holocaust like? And a woman named Branya Brandman appeared on the screen. In a Brooklyn-inflected Eastern European accent that was as familiar to me as my own voice. She replied, The major premise of the Holocaust was to dehumanize the human, the Jewish race, to elevate the German race, and they did it with brutality, which was unprecedented in human history.

The Daily
The Sunday Read: ‘This Is the Holocaust Story I Said I Wouldn’t Write’

Me. Are those numbers on your arm? Brandman. I have a tattoo, and I'm glad to show it. There is. My number is 52643 with a triangle, tattooed triangle on the bottom. The tattoo indicates that I am a Jew and available for the gas chamber. Me. What did they feed you in the camp? Brandman. Breakfast was green hot water, and then we had to leave the barrack and assemble for roll call.

The Daily
The Sunday Read: ‘This Is the Holocaust Story I Said I Wouldn’t Write’

Me. Are those numbers on your arm? Brandman. I have a tattoo, and I'm glad to show it. There is. My number is 52643 with a triangle, tattooed triangle on the bottom. The tattoo indicates that I am a Jew and available for the gas chamber. Me. What did they feed you in the camp? Brandman. Breakfast was green hot water, and then we had to leave the barrack and assemble for roll call.

The Daily
The Sunday Read: ‘This Is the Holocaust Story I Said I Wouldn’t Write’

Roll call was five deep, and while we are standing in roll call, in every kind of weather, in rags, we were being selected for the gas chamber. The most feeble ones first. And when selected for the gas chamber, we were housed in block 25, where they no longer clothed you, no longer fed you, and the rats were eating you up alive. And the screams coming out of there went to high heaven.

The Daily
The Sunday Read: ‘This Is the Holocaust Story I Said I Wouldn’t Write’

Roll call was five deep, and while we are standing in roll call, in every kind of weather, in rags, we were being selected for the gas chamber. The most feeble ones first. And when selected for the gas chamber, we were housed in block 25, where they no longer clothed you, no longer fed you, and the rats were eating you up alive. And the screams coming out of there went to high heaven.

The Daily
The Sunday Read: ‘This Is the Holocaust Story I Said I Wouldn’t Write’

And then, I don't remember getting lunch. I remember getting supper, which was a bowl of soup. How you prayed that you'd get it from the middle of the barrel and not the top. The top was pure water. You didn't want to know what was swimming in it. And you gulped it down instantly. I returned to the group of ten, and this time Mac asked them a general question.

The Daily
The Sunday Read: ‘This Is the Holocaust Story I Said I Wouldn’t Write’

And then, I don't remember getting lunch. I remember getting supper, which was a bowl of soup. How you prayed that you'd get it from the middle of the barrel and not the top. The top was pure water. You didn't want to know what was swimming in it. And you gulped it down instantly. I returned to the group of ten, and this time Mac asked them a general question.

The Daily
The Sunday Read: ‘This Is the Holocaust Story I Said I Wouldn’t Write’

Mac, do you remember when the war ended? At that, a black-haired woman named Alice Ginsberg appeared on the screen. Ginsberg, my physical state. I looked like someone who went through starvation. My mental state was wonderful. I was a human being again. It was wonderful. It felt good. I was a human being again.

The Daily
The Sunday Read: ‘This Is the Holocaust Story I Said I Wouldn’t Write’

Mac, do you remember when the war ended? At that, a black-haired woman named Alice Ginsberg appeared on the screen. Ginsberg, my physical state. I looked like someone who went through starvation. My mental state was wonderful. I was a human being again. It was wonderful. It felt good. I was a human being again.

The Daily
The Sunday Read: ‘This Is the Holocaust Story I Said I Wouldn’t Write’

Mack then led me through some questions that I wouldn't have thought to ask, ones he remembered from the interviews. He asked a man named Mark Schonwetter a direct question. When did you learn that your father had died?

The Daily
The Sunday Read: ‘This Is the Holocaust Story I Said I Wouldn’t Write’

Mack then led me through some questions that I wouldn't have thought to ask, ones he remembered from the interviews. He asked a man named Mark Schonwetter a direct question. When did you learn that your father had died?

The Daily
The Sunday Read: ‘This Is the Holocaust Story I Said I Wouldn’t Write’

The answer was a heartbreaking story in which his mother sees his father's shoes on another man's feet and learns that the man helped to dig a mass grave and was rewarded for his work with one item of clothing from the victims. And that's when he learned that his father had died.

The Daily
The Sunday Read: ‘This Is the Holocaust Story I Said I Wouldn’t Write’

The answer was a heartbreaking story in which his mother sees his father's shoes on another man's feet and learns that the man helped to dig a mass grave and was rewarded for his work with one item of clothing from the victims. And that's when he learned that his father had died.

The Daily
The Sunday Read: ‘This Is the Holocaust Story I Said I Wouldn’t Write’

At the museum, I sat, nodding thoughtfully and writing in my notebook as I listened to Schoenwetter's answer, like a complete professional. What I wrote that day, if you look in my notebook, is this. I want to die. The Lindenblats knew there was danger everywhere in the night, out there on their own. They stayed on their guard. Arrowcross officers patrolled, checking papers.

The Daily
The Sunday Read: ‘This Is the Holocaust Story I Said I Wouldn’t Write’

At the museum, I sat, nodding thoughtfully and writing in my notebook as I listened to Schoenwetter's answer, like a complete professional. What I wrote that day, if you look in my notebook, is this. I want to die. The Lindenblats knew there was danger everywhere in the night, out there on their own. They stayed on their guard. Arrowcross officers patrolled, checking papers.