Name: Dante Tejerina

Social Justice Group: 2022-2023, Technology: Free Speech v Hate Speech Online

Date of Fieldwork: February 24, 2023

Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s):

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did and what I learned about my topic, activism, social justice work or civil and human rights work from this fieldwork?:

We were lucky enough to be able to speak with a holocaust survivor on Friday, February 24th. Though unfortunately due to the combination of time and the way the human mind works, a lot of the information that we could have had was lost in the last 80 years. However the information we did gain was very useful.

Over the course of our call, Mr. Held talked to us about his experience during and after the holocaust, Mr. Held went into a concentration camp at the age of 8, when we asked about his knowledge of the situation he said “I couldn’t really know, I was just following my parents” during his time in concentration camps, he should have died twice. He was sent to the gas chambers, however on that day the camp ran out of Zyklon B. And when he was lined up to be shot, he was pushed down and saved by an old man who took the bullet for him.

After the holocaust, Mr. Held and his mother went back to Hungary until he had to escape in 1956 during the revolution against Russia, and in 1959, he got his VISA and came to the US.

While the interview was a little bit tricky, I am so glad we got to interview Mr. Held because not only was it an amazing experience for our group, but it was also an experience that I would have never expected to have.