Project

Landecker Digital Memory Database

Problem

Holocaust memorial organisations across Europe and beyond have developed hundreds of digital projects over the past three decades — virtual tours, apps, social media archives, digitised testimonies — but no central resource existed to study them comparatively. Researchers at the Landecker Digital Memory Lab needed a platform to catalogue, connect, and surface these projects for academic study.

Approach

I built the Landecker Digital Memory Database as a Laravel application with a rich set of exploration tools. The archive covers digital projects, assets, organisations, individuals, and keywords, all linked relationally. Meilisearch powers fast full-text search across the entire dataset. A globe view shows the geographic distribution of organisations; a force-directed network graph maps connections between projects and technologies; a chord diagram visualises thematic relationships between interview keywords. Researchers can segment and annotate video testimonies, create personal collections, and use natural language search to query the archive. An admin panel allows curators to manage all content.

Outcome

The database is the first systematic comparative archive of digital memory practice in the Holocaust memorial sector. It is used by researchers at Sussex and partner institutions to study how digital technologies are being adopted across the field, and provides a public-facing resource for anyone interested in digital approaches to Holocaust memory.