Holocaust victims helped by AI - 19th December 2022

A new digital tool might be able to identify Holocaust victims who've previously been nameless.

Designed by Daniel Patt, a former Google software engineer, 'From Numbers to Names' employs artificial intelligence (AI) to match the faces of Holocaust victims and survivors with a database of over 34,000 historic photographs, providing almost 200,000 faces.

Together with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Patt's attempting to piece together the past. Scott Miller, curator at the centre, emphasised the importance of putting names to faces, saying, 'It's a form of memorial to the entire Jewish community.'

From Numbers to Names enabled Holocaust survivor Blanche Fixler to identify herself and others. Fixler was just a child when her immediate family was killed by Nazi soldiers. Her aunt Rose helped her to escape, and Fixler vividly recalls hiding in fear. 'I felt them [Nazis] tapping on the bed.'

Currently 86 and based in New York, Fixler uploaded an old family photo to the website, from which Patt and his AI software found a corresponding face in another picture. That photo had been taken in a school in France in the middle of the war.

Patt then arrived in New York to show the Holocaust survivor the precious photograph. Seeing the image, Fixler's memories came pouring back, and she was also able to spot and identify both her aunt Rose, as well as a school companion.

This vital information was then passed back to the Holocaust Memorial Museum to help name further unnamed victims in the images.

The significance of putting a name to these figures from the past cannot be underestimated. As Miller pointed out, 'We all know the figure – six million Jews were killed, but it's really one person six million times. Every person has a name, every person has a face.'