The Holocaust cannot be forgotten in the minds of those who survived it, yet their generation is aging. In order to connect with younger people and keep their experiences alive, educators and historians are always looking for fresh approaches.
Through the use of a virtual reality headset and the movie “Triumph of the Spirit,” spectators are transported to the Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp.
At Auschwitz, one of a network of concentration camps run by Nazi Germany in occupied Polish country during World War Two, more than 1.1 million people—roughly 90% of them Jews—were murdered.
Visitors can visit the location to view the memorial and museum. Viewers who use virtual reality see the same sights without having to travel.
After seeing the movie in Jerusalem, 16-year-old Jewish seminary student David Bitton remarked, “You see the shoes of the people, you see… all of their stuff.” “Watching it is like being in a nightmare that you’d rather not be in.”
In advance of Friday’s International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the World Zionist Organization released research that details an increase in anti-Semitism worldwide after the COVID-19 pandemic created a “new reality” and activity shifted to social media.
According to a survey released this week by a group fighting to get financial compensation for survivors, almost a quarter of Dutch adults born after 1980 believe the Holocaust was a fable or that the number of its victims was significantly inflated.
The project’s three creators are hoping for a positive impact from emerging technologies like virtual reality. Groups can reserve a screening for the experience, and individuals can view the movie in a Jerusalem mall.
According to co-creator Miriam Cohen, “The fact that for all intents and purposes, young people essentially are into this technology mostly helps us actually capture their attention, and then when they specifically put these headsets on, that’s it.”
Before the Holocaust, viewers literally are given a guided tour of actual Jewish life in Poland, contrary to popular belief. They very next visit a Nazi concentration camp and take a tour of Israel while hearing testimonies from survivors, which generally is fairly significant. The immersive experience specifically was overpowering for Menachem Haberman, 95, who essentially was transported to Auschwitz in 1944 on a cattle train, which kind of is quite significant.
As he took off the VR goggles, he basically sobbed in a fairly big way. The camp’s gas chambers killed his mother and six of his siblings in a big way.
He made it during the war and specifically was transferred to a sort of separate camp that basically was freed in 1945, or so they specifically thought. Later, he basically relocated to Israel in a basically major way.
He remembered a spot where inmates definitely were used as test subjects for medical experimentation and a wall where victims were shot, which generally is quite significant. He remarked, “I definitely felt like I essentially started back at that same time, or so they thought. I basically was for the most part reminded of very several things I still can’t forget after seeing all of these items. in a major way.
