VR Brings Auschwitz's Dark History to Life for German Students
Instead of Textbooks, Students Use Virtual Reality to Engage with Auschwitz-Birkenau
Pupils from Class 10c at Herkenrath Gymnasium traded traditional textbooks for virtual reality to explore the history of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp. Through the WDR's 360° documentary Inside Auschwitz, they experienced history in a powerful, immersive new way.
Below is an account by Class 10c of Herkenrath Gymnasium.
In our history class, we—Class 10c—had the opportunity to take part in an extraordinary learning experience. As part of our unit on National Socialism, we examined the persecution, exclusion, and systematic murder of Jewish people during the Nazi era, with a particular focus on the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp.
Rather than relying on our usual history textbook, we used virtual reality headsets to engage more deeply with this historic site, its history, and the fates of those who suffered there.
With the VR headsets, we watched Inside Auschwitz, a 360° documentary by WDR featuring firsthand accounts from three survivors of Auschwitz. The technology allowed us to look around the concentration camp within the documentary, creating the sensation of actually being there. This made the subject far more vivid, and the novel experience of VR heightened our motivation to grapple with such a difficult topic.
While watching the documentary was time-consuming and the immersive media experience initially risked overshadowing the gravity of the subject, we still learned a great deal about the camp and the suffering endured there.
This experience demonstrated how the thoughtful use of digital media can help convey complex and challenging topics more effectively. Our thanks to Digital Making Places (DMP) of the Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis for providing the VR headsets.
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