It’s no doubt that the legacy of local Holocaust survivor Sonia Warshawski, known as “Big Sonia” and star of the award-winning documentary with the same name, will live on in Kansas City. Now, thanks to the wonders of technology, her story will live on everywhere.
Earlier this summer, Sonia spent eight to 10 hours a day for five days on a soundstage in Kansas City being filmed answering hundreds of questions as part of an interactive legacy interview. Once her answers have been edited, artificial intelligence will make it so anyone can have a conversation with a projection of her or on a laptop or phone. Her interview can be used to teach Holocaust history in schools, museums and even prisons.
“She was really able to shine and just be herself. She was so grateful for the opportunity and felt a strong obligation to continue to tell her story for future generations to learn from,” said Leah Warshawski, Sonia’s granddaughter and producer/director of the “Big Sonia” documentary. “She loves talking about her history. She knows her own story so well, and it’s still so vivid for her.”
Warshawski and a film crew from Kansas City worked with the Los Angeles-based company StoryFile to film Sonia’s interviews. Also on hand was Sonia’s daughter, Regina Kort, who recorded a small intro for her mother. Warshawksi said this is the first time a second-generation survivor has been part of an interactive interview.
Warshawski first learned about interactive legacy interviews several years ago, when 60 Minutes aired a segment on a similar project the USC Shoah Foundation was creating. Stephen Smith, StoryFile’s co-founder and chair, also serves as the executive director for the Shoah Foundation.
Warshawski said she immediately received numerous questions about if and when Sonia would be participating. At the time, Warshawski was still trying to raise the final funding for the documentary, so she tabled the idea of an interactive interview.
The interviews initially cost $1 million to create, and there’s a big misconception that the USC Shoah Foundation pays for them, Warshawski said. The cost to do an interactive interview has gone down substantially in the past few years but is still in the hundreds of thousands.
“There is a high cost because there’s so much technology involved and so much AI testing that needs to be done, because you have hundreds of combinations of questions and answers,” Warshawski said.
Funding for the Big Sonia interactive interview – which is a little more than 2/3 complete – has come from grants and donations.
“Not everyone gets to do these kinds of projects because it’s a huge endeavor,” Warshawski said. “The only way we’re able to do it is because we’ve had such an outpouring of support from the community. Sonia is a unique character with an incredible and inspiring story… She has so many adoring fans and supporters in Kansas City who continue to support our efforts.”
One supporter is Kansas City Councilwoman Heather Hall, a friend of the family who brought up the idea of an interactive interview featuring Sonia during a Zoom event last year and helped lead the charge in getting the project up and running.
StoryFile is currently editing Sonia’s interview, and Warshawski said she hopes to close the funding gap soon in order to have a rough cut of the project by late December. Then they’ll spend the next few months testing the program. The goal is to have a finished project by next April, which is Genocide Awareness Month and the anniversary of Sonia’s liberation.
Warshawski said her grandmother felt an obligation to participate in the interactive legacy interview project.
“She ultimately felt like she needed to do it to honor other people who didn’t make it,” she said. “It’s a huge honor that her legacy and story won’t be forgotten.”
