Virtual Reality Experience "Ernst Grube - the legacy"

In 2019, the idea was born to create a VR experience, where the user can join a talk between Ernst Grube, one of the last German survivors of the Holocaust and a young student. The story consists of six interviews with Ernst Grube lasting about 8-12 minutes each. The Jewish contemporary witness talks about his experience in Nazi Germany and his imprisonment in the concentration camp Theresienstadt.

In September 2019, Ernst Grube was captured in the Volumetric Capture Studio at Volucap GmbH. 32 cameras provided 80 minutes of video material from which we, at Fraunhofer HHI computed the final volumetric video.

Due the pandemic, the project continued in September 2020 and a first proof-of-concept of 3.5 minutes was created. This proof-of-concept was presented to the public in June 2021 at the NS Dokuzentrum in Munich, Germany in the temporary exhbition "End of contemporary witnesses?".

Until March 2022, the complete 50 minutes VR Experience "Ernst Grube - the legacy" was completed. This project can be considered as the longest VR production using volumetric video technology worldwide and for the first time. In the context of preserving contemporary evidence, this VR experience is also unique.

In June 2022, the world premiere of this VR experience was officially launched at the Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum in Oranienburg, near Berlin, Germany.

From the 80 minutes of interview material recorded in 2019, UFA and Fraunhofer HHI have completed a three-minute proof-of-concept of the volumetric eyewitness report. This was presented to the public for the first time on June 23, 2021 as part of the exhibition "End of contemporary witnesses?" in the NS Documentation Centre in Munich.

This short proof-of-concept presented a part of the episode of the Jewish children's home Antonienheim in Munich, where Ernst Grube lived for several years together with his brother and sister, but separated from his parents.

The full VR Experience was completed in March 2022 thanks to the funding of Medienbord Berlin-Brandenburg and with the support of the VR production company INVR-SPACE GmbH. It comprises five episodes: 1) The apartment of the Grube family in Munich, 2) The Jewish children's home Antonienheim in Munich, 3) In the Munich Jewish ghetto - the Milbertshofen camp, 4) The fear of deportation, 5) The Theresienstadt concentration camp. Each of the episodes has a duration of 8-10 minutes and the user can decide, which episode would like to be experienced with the eyewitness.

In June 2022, the world premiere of this VR experience was officially launched at the Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum in Oranienburg, near Berlin, Germany. The eyewitness Ernst Grube was present to inaugurate the Virtual Reality Experience.