Paper short abstract:

Digital technologies in Museums and institutions promise to secure the future of Holocaust remembrance after the decease of the last survivors. However, taking into consideration the glitches and failures of virtual remembrance opens new perspectives to researching commemoration practices.

Paper long abstract:

Reinforced by the pandemic, institutionalized Holocaust remembrance implements more digital technologies (Ebbrecht-Hartmann 2020, 2021). Museums and Memorial Sites today are equipped with touchscreens and media stations, they provide virtual tours of historic sites or even virtual holograms enabling a dialogue with soon to be deceased Holocaust-survivors. Digital technologies promise to attract younger generations and squire the path to a future of Holocaust remembrance after the "era of the witness" (Wievieorka 2006).

Museum workers and researchers stress the potentials of new technologies, pointing out the educational and ethical challenges of mediating history with technology. However, daily failures, glitches, troubles, and the necessary maintenance work are rarely addressed. This is caused not only by a forgetfulness of failure (Appadurai/Alexander 2020) but by an underemphasis of the material, bodily and emotional practices of commemoration.

The paper follows the panel's invitation to explore the disturbances of digital infrastructures in commemoration practices. It aims to outline a study of tech-failure in virtual Holocaust remembrance and thereby theorize the fragility of failure-research itself – especially in a morally charged field. The example of 'immersion' shows the tension of technological possibilities, promises and breakdowns. Observations drawn from a DFG-funded project ‘From the Era of the Witness to Digital Remembrance’ show, a) how glitches and tech-fails are being rationalized as useful, b) how ignoring fragilities is agreed on as feeding a greater good c) how highlighting technological failure broadens the understanding of the daily practices of remembrance while at the same time raising ethical concerns for the researcher.