How do you recount the story of the Holocaust to today’s youth in a way that will make them sit up and listen? You grab them by the guts on the right medium.

Meet @eva.stories – a first person account of Nazi persecution.

Eva Heiman, a 13-year-old girl from Hungary who perished in Auschwitz, left a diary describing the last months of her life. • In preparation of the Holocaust Remembrance Day, her diary will be adapted into more than 50 Instagram stories depicting her life which will be published every 30 minutes on @eva.stories Instagram page set up especially for this purpose.

Imagine what would have happened if the Jewish kids who lived during the Holocaust had had a smartphone, social networks and could have documented what was going on? That was the starting point for ‘Eva’s Stories’ – a unique new Instagram series which will for this year’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, over a period of 24 hours, issue a new story every 30 minutes documenting the life of Eva Haiman, a 13-year-old girl from Hungary who perished in Auschwitz, and left her diary behind.

When the Nazis invaded Hungary in 1944, Eva Heiman was a 13-year-old girl living in the town of Nagyvarad. She began to write a diary on her birthday, February 13th 1944 and stopped on May 30th 1944 – just three months later and three days before she was deported by train to Auschwitz, where she perished.

75 years later, her story has been adapted into a special film project produced and created by hi-tech entrepreneur Matti Kohavi and his daughter Maya, who invested millions of dollars in the project. To do that, they adapted Eva’s personal diary into a screenplay and together with a team of 400 production people, actors and extras, they reconstructed Eva’s life and filmed it in Lviv Ukraine.

“We took the diary and actually translated it into a full 70-minute film,” Mati Kochavi explains. “It is one of the biggest projects that Instagram has ever done.” We asked ourselves what would happen if Eva, instead of a pen and paper for writing a diary, had a smartphone and Instagram. That’s when we decided to shoot the entire film with a smartphone or a camera that simulates the smartphone, with the girl always holding the camera, and the entire film being shot from her perspective”. Kochavi adds that “the idea was to build the environment in which Eva lived and supposedly photographed what she was sending to her friends.”

Eva’s story will be recounted on the special Instagram page set up in her memory for Holocaust Memorial Day. During 24 hours, her life will be brought to life through still images, text passages and stories that will let the audience bear witness to events that took place during the last months of her life – from getting to know her family and friends, through to the Nazi invasion of her city, the uprooting from the house, move to the ghetto, violence and torture she survived, right up to her boarding the train to Auschwitz.

When asked Maya Kochavi said: “The stories will turn Eva from a nameless face into a colorful, lifelike and relevant figure that tells about of her life and what’s happening in it in much the same way millions of people around the world today document their everyday lives”.

Working with Leo Burnett Israel to get the word out, the campaign launched with billboards and a teaser trailer video “What if a girl during the holocaust had Instagram?” and influencer activation strategy. Within hours it sparked a nationwide conversation and @eva.stories Instagram page became the first commercial Instagram page in Israel to organically gather over 120.000 followers in a week. While over 1,000 influencers and Israeli celebrities have already posted about Eva’s Stories, the real win so far is to see the number of youngsters who have signed up to the page and are for the first time discussing Holocaust Day ahead of time.

So when does the page kick-off for real? On May 1st. Posts will appear every 30 minutes until 10:00 AM on May 2nd the time at which the siren will sound and people all over Israel will stand still for a one minute of silent remembrance. Time at which we will also air Eva’s last story – right before she was shipped off to Auschwitz, never to return.

To follow our stories on Instagram: @eva.stories

Project credits:

Screenplay: Maya Kochavi & Mati Kochavi
Direction: Mati Kochavi & Mayv Kochavi
Executive producers: Mati Kochavi & Yona Wiesental
Production company: Pov Productions, Color film
Producers: Neta Karni & Hadar Albaranes&Liat Lehavi
Dop: Lael UtnikLine
Producer & 1st AD: Shabtai Itzhak Eden
Editor: Arik Lahav Leibovich
Research: Dr. Liran Gordon
Client: K’s Galleries

Agency credits:
Agency: Leo Burnett Israel
CEO: Adam Polachek
VP Creative: Ami Alush
Chief Client Director: Idit Zukerman
Creative Team: Oren Ben Naim, Meital Miller
Account Supervisor: Orian Liber
Account Manager: Reut Frid
Studio Manager: Sagi Valenstain
Media: Publicis Media
Marcom: Eva Hasson