What AI can lose when it makes Holocaust writings easier to read

AI Summary

Sal Bramson used handwritten explanations on pieces of cloth to send concealed messages to his mother from a prison during the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam. The account raises questions about what may be lost when AI makes Holocaust-era writings easier to read, including the material context that enabled communication.

In an Amsterdam prison during the Nazi occupation, Sal Bramson drew his cell on pieces of cotton cloth. He added handwritten explanations and sent these messages to his mother, concealed inside a shirt collar among the prison laundry. The cloth could travel because it passed as something ordinary. Its material was part of what made communication possible.