Verbit, a transcription platform, is revolutionizing the way we preserve history by making it more accessible and readily available in various languages. The company utilizes automatic speech recognition technology to create initial transcriptions that are then refined by human editors to ensure accuracy and completeness.
Yair Amsterdam, CEO of Verbit, emphasizes the importance of transcribing old recordings to enhance the quality of the content. Their technology can remove background noise from decades-old recordings, making them more accessible and renewing historical testimonies. The goal is to transcribe approximately 8 million minutes of testimonies in multiple languages, including those related to the Holocaust, to preserve this crucial part of history for future generations.
The testimonies collected from various archives in Israel and Yale University cover a range of experiences, including that of Gita Sikowitz, who survived the Holocaust as a young girl. Her testimony describes the hardships she endured, including surviving selections in Auschwitz and labor camps. The transcripts of these testimonies are crucial for future generations to understand the atrocities of the Holocaust and prevent similar events from happening again.
Despite technical challenges such as poor audio quality and varied accents accurately transcribing these testimonies is crucial for preserving history. Greg Schneider, Senior Vice President of the Claims Conference emphasizes the sensitivity and importance of these testimonies especially as survivors of the Holocaust are dwindling. Preserving these stories through transcription ensures that they are accurately documented for posterity.
Overall, transcription plays an essential role in preserving history and ensuring that important testimonies are accessible and understood by future generations. By transcribing and translating these accounts we honor the voices of survivors while also ensuring that historical lessons aren’t forgotten
