Eva Heyman was a 13-year-old Jewish girl from Hungary (now Romania), who dreamed of being a photojournalist. She had big dreams and kept a diary of her life, thoughts and crushes just like any young girl her age. She was adventurous and loved her family and friends. All this is visible from her Instagram story, Eva.Stories. On Eva.Stories, viewers are able to see all aspects of Eva’s life from her thirteenth birthday, to her boarding the train to the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944.
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Similar to Anne Frank, Eva is a real historical figure from the World War II era. We know everything about her thanks to the diary she kept about her life in the 40’s leading up to the war, and then to the send off of nearly 6 million Jews during the Holocaust. It’s clear from her writing that she was an observant young girl, focused and full of life, not afraid to write about current events and how it affected her life and family. On top of her writing skills, she also enjoyed things like swimming, skating, and bicycle riding.
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Though Eva’s story was published after the war, and after she had perished at Auschwitz in 1944, her story lives on. Just like her diary, the Instagram story created accurately depicts how fast everything went downhill for Jewish families and the terror of the Nazi rule. The Instagram story brings to life everything that Eva went through, from her eyes. A lot of viewers were unsettled by this because the method of putting out her story was so personal.
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The audience felt her embarrassment and shame as she wore the Star of David for the first time because it was as though they were watching it in real time. The audience was uncomfortable when she recorded the Nazi soldiers in the marching in the street and abusing women and not caring to see if anyone was watching. In one frame we see her playing around her grandfather’s pharmacy, then in another we see it being taken away since Jews weren’t allowed to own businesses.
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For a lot of people, it’s hard to imagine what life was like during WWII and what Jewish families went through. This method of storytelling hits close to home for a lot of viewers since Instagram is such a commonly used app. You would never expect your friends to post something so tragic to the app, so seeing it takes people by surprise. The creators of Eva.Stories made it as though the technology of Instagram existed during the 40’s and we were watching it all unfold before us when in actuality we were simply viewing a simulation.
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The creators of the Instagram page deem it a huge success. The reactions from the audience were exactly what they were looking for and it also forced people to look at and talk about a normally uncomfortable subject.
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