The Second World War (WW2) is fading from living memory as the last survivors and witnesses pass away. First-hand accounts—critical for education, historical research, and combating misinformation—are scattered across personal collections, museums, and niche websites. Without a central, accessible repository, these invaluable testimonies risk being lost, diluted, or overshadowed by unverified claims.

How It Could Work

One way to address this gap is by creating a centralized digital archive for WW2 testimonials, combining the accessibility of a wiki with multimedia functionality. Here’s how it might function:

• Crowdsourced Contributions: Families, historians, and institutions could submit photos, video interviews, letters, or diaries, with metadata tagging (e.g., events like D-Day, geographic locations, or witness roles).
• Verification: Partnering with established archives (e.g., USC Shoah Foundation) could help cross-reference submissions with official records to ensure authenticity.
• Educational Integration: Lesson plans and study guides could link directly to primary sources, making it easier for teachers to incorporate real stories into curricula.

Why This Matters

Such a platform could serve multiple audiences:

• Educators: Schools could use verified testimonials to bring history to life, meeting mandates like Germany’s Holocaust education requirements.
• Researchers: A searchable database could reveal patterns, like comparing civilian experiences across occupied countries.
• Families: Descendants could preserve relatives’ legacies in a permanent, public space while controlling privacy settings.

For institutions like UNESCO or national archives, this could align with anti-fascism initiatives while expanding the reach of their collections.

Getting Started

An MVP might begin with:

1. A basic wiki-style platform seeded with 100 pre-verified testimonials from partner archives.
2. Piloting the resource in a handful of schools to refine tools for educators.

Later phases could add crowdsourcing features and multilingual support, addressing gaps in existing platforms like YouTube’s uncurated videos or subscription-only archives.

Funding might combine grants (e.g., EU cultural programs) with freemium models—free for schools but offering API access for researchers. By prioritizing verification and education, this could become a trusted hub for preserving history as eyewitnesses disappear.