Oct7 Memorial – Preserving the Voices of October 7

On the morning of October 7, as attacks unfolded across southern Israel, people reached for their phones. From safe rooms in kibbutzim. From roads under fire. From inside homes and shelters. They sent WhatsApp messages. To family. To friends. To anyone who might help. These were not written testimonies. They were real-time moments, raw, immediate, unfiltered. Some of the people who wrote them did not survive. And now, these messages are disappearing. Phones are replaced. Cloud backups are overwritten. Conversations are lost. With them, a part of history disappears. What We Do Oct7 Memorial collects, preserves, and makes accessible digital materials from October 7. Today, the archive includes: Over 1.2 million messages Tens of thousands of participants We work directly with communities, survivors, and families to rescue these materials before they are lost. The archive is being developed in collaboration with the National Library of Israel and will serve researchers, communities, and future generations. Why It Matters We are in a race against time. WhatsApp was never designed to preserve history. Messages disappear every day. Without this effort, there will be no complete record of what happened.