How a Virtual Reality Model of Auschwitz Helped Convict an SS Concentration Camp Guard: A Short Documentary on a High Tech Prosecution

In 2016, Rein­hold Han­ning, a for­mer SS guard at the Auschwitz con­cen­tra­tion camp, was tried and con­vict­ed for being an acces­so­ry to at least 170,000 deaths. In mak­ing their case, pros­e­cu­tors did some­thing novel–they relied on a vir­tu­al real­i­ty ver­sion of the Auschwitz con­cen­tra­tion camp, which helped under­mine Han­ning’s claim that he was­n’t aware of what hap­pened inside the camp. The vir­tu­al real­i­ty head­set let view­ers see the camp from almost any angle, and estab­lished that “Han­ning would have seen the atroc­i­ties tak­ing place all around him.”

The high-tech pros­e­cu­tion of Han­ning gets well doc­u­ment­ed in “Nazi VR,” the short doc­u­men­tary above. It comes from MEL Films, and will be added to our col­lec­tion of online doc­u­men­taries.

If you would like to sign up for Open Culture’s free email newslet­ter, please find it here. Or fol­low our posts on Threads, Face­book, BlueSky or Mastodon.

If you would like to sup­port the mis­sion of Open Cul­ture, con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your con­tri­bu­tions will help us con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing the best free cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als to learn­ers every­where. You can con­tribute through Pay­Pal, Patre­on, and Ven­mo (@openculture). Thanks!

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Auschwitz Cap­tured in Haunt­ing Drone Footage (and a New Short Film by Steven Spiel­berg & Meryl Streep)

Carl Jung Psy­cho­an­a­lyzes Hitler: “He’s the Uncon­scious of 78 Mil­lion Ger­mans.” “With­out the Ger­man Peo­ple He’d Be Noth­ing” (1938)

From Cali­gari to Hitler: A Look at How Cin­e­ma Laid the Foun­da­tion for Tyran­ny in Weimar Ger­many

Watch World War II Rage Across Europe in a 7 Minute Time-Lapse Film: Every Day From 1939 to 1945