Video: Holocaust Survivor Shares Her Story In Second Life

By Nate Ralph

With some help from her daughter's Second Life avatar, Holocaust survivor Fanny Starr met with a group of the virtual world's citizens to share her personal experience of the horrors of genocide.

The video, while only a few minutes long, provides a brief glimpse of the horrors she endured, including an encounter with the notorious Dr. Josef Mengele. The lecture becomes especially noteworthy in light of the technology being leveraged -- the 87-year-old Starr has given many similar talks on her experiences throughout the past 30 years, but Second Life allowed her to reach a much wider audience without the burden of travel.

The full lecture is over an hour long, but features an in-depth question and answer session with members of the audience. A video is available from Second Life user GeoMeek.