Holocaust survivor Charlotte Knobloch on memory ambassadors, virtual reality and visibility of the past

Born in Munich in 1932, Ms Knobloch, daughter of lawyer and senator Fritz Neuland, witnessed the horrors of the Holocaust unfold right in front of her eyes. Having experienced the November pogroms of 1938 and her father’s arrest by the Nazis, she escaped the fate of deportation only by hiding under a false name with Catholic farmers who pretended she was their illegitimate daughter. Now 91, Knobloch continues to share her story as the World Jewish Congress Commissioner for Holocaust Memory and the President of the Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria.

Every year, fewer Holocaust survivors can tell the current and future generations about the injustice, persecution, and violence they lived through. Ms Knobloch dedicated her life to reviving the Jewish community and culture in Germany after the War and rebuilding a world where there’s a place for everyone. During her visit to UNESCO, Ms Knobloch answered some of our questions about her lifelong mission to educate about the Holocaust and providing visibility to Jewish life. 

Ms Knobloch was the first woman to head the Central Council of Jews in Germany and has served as head of the Jewish community in Munich since the 1980s. She still lives in Munich and continues to be a leader and active advocate of the Jewish communities in the country. However, she worries that the atrocities of the Nazis’ persecution of Jews may be forgotten, especially against the backdrop of rising antisemitism and hate speech. 

“Anyone lucky enough to be born after 1945 cannot comprehend the horrors of the Holocaust. But only by knowing about it can they preserve the world in which they themselves grew up. Knowledge of the past is our firewall against a history that is always ready to come back if we fail in preventing it,” she says.

Ms Knobloch adds that the task of keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive is becoming increasingly complex with the last few survivors leaving the scene, but at the same time, it is crucial as never before. She adds, “While there is no substitute for direct personal interaction, what matters is that younger generations are taught about history and made to realize the shared responsibility of humanity that comes from it. This is what UNESCO aims to do as well, and I am glad and grateful that memorial work has such a strong ally.

“There are several projects already underway that aim to facilitate meetings between the remaining survivors and young people not just to educate the latter, but rather with the explicit goal of moulding them into ambassadors of memory. Today’s young people are the final generation who get to meet Holocaust survivors in person, and they need to realize the responsibility that comes with this historical role. One day, when they have children and grandchildren of their own, they can pass on what they have seen, learned, and internalized. Of course, to be able to do that, they need to have access to adequate Holocaust education that also allows them to grow into that role.”

“We need to use all available options to arouse the younger generation’s interest. Books, movies, graphic novels, TV shows, even holograms and virtual reality – what matters is that every young person can find their own factual and emotional approach to a past we must all confront.” 

Ms Knobloch was just six years old at the time of Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass, a mass pogrom against Jews in Germany and Austria on November 9, 1938, which marked a turning point in the persecution of Jewish communities by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. 85 years later, she remembers that night as if it happened yesterday, with images of neighbours turning on their neighbours, breaking the glass of Jewish businesses and synagogues and beating up average citizens, all burned in her memory forever. 

Knobloch decided to immortalize her story in Virtual Reality (VR) experience so that future generations can hear from her even when she is no longer around. She teamed up with the Claims Conference, the USC Shoah Foundation, Meta, UNESCO and the World Jewish Congress for “Inside Kristallnacht”. In this immersive mixed reality experience about the events of November 9-10, 1938, she guides users through interactive reconstructions of spaces, such as synagogues, that were destroyed during that night, in addition to archival photos, video footage, and authentic audio recordings. All of it is in service of giving users a deeper understanding of what transpired before, during and after Kristallnacht and how this experience shaped her life’s journey.

Ms Knobloch believes that providing people with historical facts alone is not enough to counter Holocaust denial. Still, these facts are fundamental for encountering this history and understanding its complexity.  She is convinced that Holocaust and, equally as important, civic education are essential to effectively prevent Holocaust denial and antisemitism.

“That does not mean there is no room for improvement in education as we see it today. In [German] schools, I often encounter students who open up about personal feelings of guilt, which I find shocking. The idea that youngsters the age of my great-grandchildren are “guilty” because of the events of the past is dangerous and wrong, and leading them to think this way can do more harm than good. Rather, Holocaust education must address a shared responsibility for remembrance and for the democracies that could not exist without it.”

Ms Knobloch also highlights the importance of memorial sites in preserving and transmitting the memory of the Holocaust: “Most concentration camp sites, while impressive, cannot fully convey the horrors of the past. In Dachau, for example, only small portions of the original structures were preserved, and you have to be somewhat involved already to “fill in the blanks”. Auschwitz, on the other hand, is the only site where the past is clearly visible. No one who visits a place like this can come out the same person they were when they went in.”

• International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust
• UNESCO’s work on education about the Holocaust and genocide