The Claims Conference has unveiled a new immersive experience to commemorate the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass).
Kristallnacht is the tragic pogrom took place from 9 to 10 November, 1938, during the rise of Nazism in Germany. In the terrible incident, Nazis detained 30,000 Jews and sent them to concentration camps.
In partnership with the University of South Carolina Shoah Foundation, the virtual reality experience will include immersive 360-degree footage of footage, photos, and other historic relics from the experience.
Additionally, XR experiences firm MakeMePulse designed the experience along with partners Meta Platforms, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the World Jewish Congress. It is set to debut next year for people to view.
The presentation will feature commentary from Dr Charlotte Knobloch, a survivor of the Holocaust, and will allow audiences to interact with real-time 3D (RT3D) footage from the presentation.
This includes asking virtual characters questions, learning about the history of the tragedy, and information on the Holocaust in general.
It will also use interactive reconstructions of historic spaces, extended reality (XR) technologies, and natural language processing (NLP) for interacting with Dr Knobloch’s digital twin.
Speaking on the immersive experience, Dr Knobloch said it was “imperative” at the current moment in history to “do everything in our power to elevate Holocaust education and to get it in into the hands and minds of future generations.
She continued,
“Antisemitism is on the rise throughout the world – it exists today as it always has. If we do not continue to keep the memory of the past alive and push the lessons of the Holocaust, they will soon be forgotten, and we will be doomed to repeat our history. As those of us who survived pass on, these tools, this technology will continue to be our voice and our testimony.”
Furthermore, the immersive experience will debut on VR headsets, internet browsers, smartphones, tablets, and other platforms for “online, museum, and educational distribution.”
Nord XR Opens Führerbunker Historic VR Experience
The immersive experience comes shortly after German XR enterprise Nord XR released its VR film Führerbunker in November last year.
Using Epic Games’s Unreal Engine 5 to develop immersive content, the XR firm designed the TIME & HISTORY experience for the German federal states of Lower Saxony and Bremen. This also debuted in partnership with the Nordmedia funding agency.
Leveraging Nord XR’s virtual, augmented, and mixed reality technologies, the experience showcased a massive trove of research, education, and other resources for viewers.
The experience also debuted across Meta Quest headsets, including the Quest 2, Quest Pro, and now, Meta Quest 3, as well as Windows-based laptops.
