When Google is the biggest search engine in the world, has joined forces with Yad Vashem, the world's largest body of Jews in the database, the first thing a Google employee here was not to find the name of his grandfather.
A rail employee, Doron Avni, a helping hand from Google at Yad Vashem website shows a photo of his grandfather, Yecheskel Fleischer, who in 1941, just after he was released from prison Nazi term in Lithuania.
Under the photo of his grandfather, then 27, with black eyes and emaciated, Mr. Avni was able to capture the details of the story of his grandfather. Icons on the Facebook page, Twitter and other social media can immediately share images and information attached.
"It's a step that marks a new era in our ability to communicate and to access to a valuable database of Yad Vashem, Avner Shalev said, President of Yad Vashem in a news conference last month on Google office in downtown Tel Aviv.
Yad Vashem began digitizing its activities in 1990 and has an extensive website, but Google's technology and experience to a group of employees who worked on the project for three years, making information readily available search engines.
The photos were scanned using OCR, which identifies all text images, it is required. So if the name of Mr. Avni's grandfather is not mentioned in the document, but it was engraved with a photograph, either in Latin or in Hebrew letters, he would still be found.
The first stage of the partnership with Google's Holocaust Memorial, and contains about 130 000 full resolution photos, hosted on Google servers, with an option, users can add comments, including the historical background and my family history. Long-term goal is to Yad Vashem is the largest archive of millions of documents, such as testimonies of survivors, diaries, letters and manuscripts.
Two years ago, Google and Yad Vashem began their first joint project, a YouTube channel for displaying views of Holocaust survivors. John Palfrey, co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard, said that although this public-private partnerships can contribute significantly, the private control of public resources has raised potential conflicts.
"In the way of this altruistic project may look different," Palfrey said by telephone from Cambridge, Mass. "I would say is a good thing that information is made available to the world, but many of us worry about the central role a company plays in the preservation of cultural information in the world. "
"I do not know," he said. "I do not know where the interest of companies could align with the public interest in the line." For now, the interests seem to have converged.
After seeing his photograph grandfather, "said Avni, the political director for Google search and development center in Israel, comments on how his grandfather hid in the forests of Lithuania until 'at the end of the Second World War, before being discovered by Russian soldiers who initially mistook him for a German and wanted to kill him.
When the soldiers were presented with the same photo, which clearly identifies him as a Jew, because his shirt was the star of David the Nazis forced Jews to wear, had spared his life.
"What my grandfather wanted the next generation know about the Holocaust," said Avni. "It would have been inspired by this, to know their message is now sent to so many people around the world."
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