Voci dall'Inferno: The voices of the Lager survivors

Voci dall'Inferno is a research project directed by Professor Marina Riccucci (University of Pisa) since 2016, with support from Professor Angelo Mario Del Grosso (CNR-ILC, Pisa) and contributions from numerous Digital Humanities students.The project has two integrated objectives: a) digitizing and encoding in XML-TEI format the first digital corpus of concentration camp survivors' non-literary testimonies, including written and oral sources; b) identifying, quantifying, and evaluating the presence of Dante's lexicon and allusions within these testimonies. The research is based on the observation that many survivors, regardless of their educational background, found in Dante's lexicon, particularly from the Divine Comedy's Inferno, a vocabulary to express the inexpressible experiences of the Lager. A web application, developed in the eXist-db environment using XQuery, enables publishing, querying, and analysis of the encoded data. By adhering to Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) guidelines, the project ensures a structured digital archive aligned with FAIR principles. Currently, the archive contains 18 individuals with 23 testimonies in XML-TEI format, including 13 oral and 10 written accounts. In total, 18 hours and 35 minutes of recordings and 390 pages of written testimonies have been transcribed and encoded. Initial investigation reveals that 11 of the 18 witnesses use quotations, allusions, or vocabulary from the Divine Comedy, totaling 68 references to Dante's work. Future development of the project will closely align with the CLARIN-IT collaboration and EHRI infrastructure, through the support of DiPText-KC and the Voices from Ravensbrück’ Project.