(Times of Israel) Matt Lebovic - During World War II, Westerbork was used by the Nazis to imprison Dutch Jews on their way to "resettlement" in the east - a euphemism for genocide. Nearly every Tuesday for two years, a train with hundreds of Jews left Westerbork. Of the more than 100,000 Jews deported, only 5,000 survived the Holocaust. In the 1960s, the Dutch government dismantled Westerbork and the area became a site for massive radio telescopes that are still in operation. Westerbork's museum, located 2 miles away, has begun to offer virtual reality (VR) to tour groups to help visitors envision what took place. Inside a dimmed room with wrap-around screens, users can zoom in and out of dozens of barracks, several guard towers, and all kinds of camp facilities, based on the many photographs that were taken at Westerbork during its operation. The VR simulation was designed by Paul Verschure, a professor of cognitive science at Barcelona's Pompeu Fabra University. Two years ago, Verschure's team launched a VR app for the former Nazi concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen in Germany. In 2015, Germany's Public Prosecution Service ordered the creation of a "virtual reality Auschwitz-Birkenau" to assist in prosecuting Nazi war criminals.
2018-01-19 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive