ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Despite the historic photos, the preserved artifacts and all the history books, The Florida Holocaust Museum's Interim Executive Director Erin Blankenship believes the story of that horrific times is best told through Holocaust survivors.

What You Need To Know

  •  The Florida Holocaust Museum has added a new interactive exhibit

  •  Dimensions in Testimony allows visitors have a conversation with survivors

  • The exhibit opens to the public Sunday

​"When they have a survivor’s testimony as part of that education, they’re apt to be more empathetic," Blankenship said. "They’re more apt to speak out against injustice. They’re more apt to be up standers. And that’s what our mission is."

But over the last 76 years, fewer survivors are still alive to speak their truth. Now through the magic of Hollywood and one of it's legendary filmmakers, Steven Spielberg, these survivors will continue to tell their stories for all time through an interactive, life-sized project called Dimensions in Testimony.

"it’s different than reading a history book," Blankenship said. "It’s us getting to hear the emotion in someone’s voice, look at it through their eyes and understand that these aren’t just individuals in a black-and-white history book textbook at school. That these are real people that have important things to share with us."

Each survivor was asked thousands of questions. Their answers are part of an interactive program where a life-sized image of the survivor sitting in a chair appears on a vertical flat screen. Visitors can ask a question into a mic and the virtual survivor responds with a pre-recorded answer from the actual survivor.

I asked the virtual Günther Pinkius, 89, "What is the one thing you want people to remember most about the Holocaust?"

"The most important lesson from the Holocaust is that the world is a very dangerous place," the virtual Mr. Pinkus said. "And we have to be on guard continuously against iniquity. By looking at what happened during the Holocaust, we should see how the world can become if it continues like that."

I also asked, "How do you want to be remembered?"

"I would like to think that I did some good in this world," he said. "My greatest wish, is that it would make the world a better place to live in for future generations. This is what I try to teach through my stories."

Dimensions in Testimony opens to the public on Sunday.