The harrowing true story of a Holocaust victim has been repackaged as an Instagram account in an attempt to introduce the horrors of WWII to a younger generation.
In 70 Instagram Stories, viewers are taken on the journey of Eva Heyman, a 13-year-old Hungarian Jew alive in 1944.
In the stories, she goes from a happy pre-teen to being rounded up by the Nazi soldiers and sent to a death camp.
Based on the real-life journal of Heyman, the project was spearheaded by Israeli tech executive Mati Kochavi and his daughter Maya.
The stories began rolling out on May 1 and came to a conclusion 24 hours ago, to coincide with Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day.
“The memory of the Holocaust outside of Israel is disappearing,” Kochavi said in an interview with The Times.
“We found the journal and said, ‘Let’s assume that instead of pen and paper Eva had a smartphone and documented what was happening to her.’ So we brought a smartphone to 1944.”
A 70 year old story, recreated for a 2019 audience
Kochavi sourced tanks, trucks, motorcycles and a 400-strong production team to bring Eva’s story to life. It’s understood the project cost upwards of $4 million.
The Instagram story is eerily similar to that of a modern teen: it features gifs, stickers, hashtags and boomerangs. Every shot was recorded vertically on an iPhone.
Eva’s recovered journals start in February 1944 - one month before the Nazis invaded Hungary - and cover 108 days.
The Instagram version delivers incremental updates peppered with excerpts from the journals.
Dear Diary, I don't want to die, I still want to live, even if it means that only I remain behind from this entire district.
This was Eva’s last entry before she was transferred to Auschwitz, where she ultimately perished in a gas chamber.
Her mother, Agnes Zsolt, survived the war and found Eva’s diary upon her return to Hungary. The journals were eventually published.
Holocaust selfies
Last month, the Auschwitz Memorial tweeted a plea for tourist to stop taking selfies and social media photos at historic Holocaust sites.
Likewise, the not-for-profit project has been criticised for the social media medium used to tell Eva’s story.
“The path from ‘Eva’s Story’ to selfie-taking at the gates of Auschwitz-Birkenau is short and steep,” wrote Yuval Mendelson, a musician and civics teacher in an op-ed for Israel’s Haaretz newspaper.
While he concedes that it’s harder to reach younger generations, he concludes Instagram is not the answer.
A fictitious Instagram account of a girl murdered in the Holocaust is not and cannot be a legitimate way.
In response to the criticism, Kochavi said,“Why disrespectful? It’s the way people communicate.”
I have no doubt in my mind that young people around the world want to have serious content and be connected in the right way.
The account @Eva.stories currently has 1.1 million followers at time of writing. Watch Eva’s Story in full on Instagram here.
