Anthology of Computers and the Humanities · Volume 3

“Crying like a Baby”: Survival Analysis and the Multimodal Memory of Holocaust Survivors

Gabor Mihaly Toth1 ORCID , Mohamed Laib2 ORCID , Alina Bothe3 ORCID , Marcus Ma4 ORCID , Shrikanth Narayanan4 ORCID , Cedric Pruski2 ORCID and Marcos da Silveira2 ORCID

  • 1 Center for Contemporary and Digital History, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg
  • 2 Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, Luxembourg
  • 3 Selma Stern Center for Jewish Studies Berlin-Brandenburg, Free University, Berlin, Germany
  • 4 Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, United States
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Permanent Link: https://doi.org/10.63744/sTRxoCHdBgK5

Published: 21 November 2025

Keywords: Holocaust testimonies, survival analysis, multimodal analysis, gender differences, oral history, emotional response

Abstract

This paper presents a novel application of survival analysis to study gender differences in emotional responses during Holocaust survivor testimonies. By analyzing 982 oral history interviews (454 women, 528 men) from the USC Shoah Foundation, we examine the temporal patterns of crying and sobbing events using multimodal analysis techniques. Our findings reveal that women survivors cry earlier and more frequently than men during their testimonies, with statistically significant differences in waiting times and recurrence patterns. Furthermore, we identify gender-specific triggers: women are more likely to cry when discussing forced labor, while men show emotional responses when discussing captivity, mistreatment, and religious topics. This study demonstrates how survival analysis can provide meaningful insights into the temporality and gendered nature of traumatic memory transmission in oral history interviews.