The educational impact of interconnecting Holocaust memorial sites and museums through immersive technologies

This aim of this project is to use immersive technologies as a method of interconnecting memorial sites and museums across Europe in order to help people learn more about narratives of the Holocaust. Visitors attending one location will be provided with a virtual experience of other educationally related but geographically distant locations, allowing them to deepen their understanding of the Holocaust. The historical narratives associated with particular memorial sites and museums are interlinked and trying to understand them in relation to only one location is therefore very difficult. For instance, victims were commonly transported between various main and satellite camps, requiring visitors to memorial sites and museums to explore beyond their current location in order to follow the full narrative of any particular individual. The similarities and differences between concentration, death, satellite and transit camps also help visitors to understand the complex forces of bureaucracy that were at play during the Third Reich. This project will design and develop a platform that intelligently links the experience of these related locations through immersive technologies, resulting in a valuable educational resource. A prototype knowledge exchange platform that connects memorial sites and museums in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands will initially be developed. However, the project will result in the design of a scalable model, allowing other locations to join the platform at a later stage, generating even greater educational impact as the platform is more widely adopted.