Reporter’s notebook: Experiencing Auschwitz in virtual reality
To keep her story alive, Ms. Fritzshall and the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center created a virtual reality experience that will bring viewers back with her as she walks the grounds of the concentration camp and recounts her life as a teenager.
...Ms. Fritzshall describes her aunt, who used to hold her at night and tell her that everything would be better the next day: “Let’s just live until the morning.” She shares her memories of the talk of cooking and family recipes as the women huddled hungry in their bunks. We hear about hundreds of women at the labor camp who lined up to give Ms. Fritzshall crumbs from their bread — hoping to help the young girl survive.
...The museum, which brought the experiences to Pittsburgh this week during the summit, is set to debut the VR exhibit in January.
...In the cargo car, for example, viewers could feel the claustrophobia as people filled every inch of space. In the labor factory, the presence of the other women coming closer to share a crumb of their bread was vivid.
Mr. Oleksiuk acknowledged that the experience is emotional, describing it as education rather than entertainment.
See the full story here: https://www.post-gazette.com/business/tech-news/2021/10/21/Illinois-Holocaust-Museum-and-Education-Center-Fritzie-Fritzshall-virtual-reality-Eradicate-Hate-Global-Summit/stories/202110200161
