“Eva.Stories,” a series of 70 Instagram stories that chronicle the Holocaust-era tragedy of Eva Heyman, a teenager in Nazi-era Hungary, won two 2020 Webby Awards, considered the Oscars of the internet.
Created by tech billionaire Mati Kochavi and his daughter, Maya,
“Eva.Stories” which won a Webby for Best Use of Stories (alongside “Saturday Night Live”) and another for Best Campaigns on Social Media.
“The Israeli nation made the story of Eva in that they adopted her, loved her and followed her,” said Mati and Maya Kochavi in a statement. “After them, came millions of viewers around the world.”
The Kochavis said the Webby win offered another opportunity for the public to get to know Eva, a 13-year-old Jewish girl who suffered and was murdered in the Auschwitz concentration.
The two embarked on the project to help spread the memory of the Holocaust among the younger generation on a social media platform with which young people are active.
They read dozens of diaries before deciding Heyman was the kind of teen that modern kids could connect to, Maya Kochavi said last year ahead of Israel’s annual Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Heyman was one of approximately 430,000 Hungarian Jews who were deported to Nazi concentration camps between May 15 and July 9, 1944.
The story unfolded as if Heyman had owned a smartphone during World War II and was using Instagram to broadcast her life updates. They were created with real actors and have a stylized, Hollywood feel to them.
The series has won other awards. The “Eva.Stories” Instagram account has 1.6 million followers.
The Times of Israel
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