On June 12, 2018 Anne Frank would have been 89 years old—but as we all know, her life was cut short at the age of 15. She left behind a moving diary, full of her dreams and hopes, which she wrote during a period of two years when her entire family lived hiding in an attic. This attic became a museum—the Anne Frank House—and now, thanks to modern technology, anyone can take a virtual reality tour of the place.
Anne Frank House VR—An Emotionally Charged Virtual Reality Tour
The history of World War II and its countless victims is palpably brutal enough just from reading about it. But to feel the true emotional connections to the victims of Holocaust, one must go and see the places where they lived, suffered and died. Among millions of victims, Anne Frank stands out because she left behind an account of her life as a prisoner.
The Anne Frank House museum was created at her father’s request. He wanted the entire world to experience how his teenage daughter lived the last years of her young life and to make sure that such atrocities will never be repeated. With a desire to make this emotional experience available to more people, the Anne Frank House partnered with Force Field VR and Oculus to create a detailed virtual reality tour of Anne Frank’s hiding place.
Technology Meets History
The virtual reality tour can be experienced in two modes:
- Story mode: this is the complete tour of the house with before and after informational videos which create context and give a history of the house and family;
- Tour mode: the user is free to explore the house at their own pace and navigate through each room at will.
The entire VR experience lasts approximately 25 minutes and is available in seven languages: English, Hebrew, Dutch, German, French, Spanish and Portuguese.
This virtual reality tour was made possible not only with the work of Force Field VR, but also with financial backing from Oculus. This enables The Anne Frank House to offer the immersive experience for free.
“The VR tour gives people all around the world the opportunity to explore Anne Frank’s hiding place as it was in July 1942 to August 1944, the period when Anne Frank was forced into hiding and wrote her diary. The tour offers an immersive experience. Our heartfelt thanks go out to Force Field VR, which developed the tour, and to Oculus, which helped to finance the project,” stated Ronald Leopold, Executive Director of the Anne Frank House.
Current and Future Plans for the Virtual Reality Tour
At the present, the Anne Frank House VR virtual reality tour can be downloaded for free on the Oculus Store for Samsung Gear VR and for Oculus Go. The VR experience is also available on location at the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam for motion impaired visitors.
In the near future, the virtual reality tour will be also available to visitors in Berlin, Germany at the Anne Frank Zentrum and in New York, at the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect.