Multisensory Virtual Archives of the Neuengamme and Bergen-Belsen Holocaust Memorial Sites

These three web-based virtual archive projects, disseminated in July 2019, were created as part of the AHRC/EPSRC funded project Virtual Holocaust Memoryscapes. This project investigated the potential for virtual and immersive technologies to create new understandings of the ‘hidden histories’ located within the Neuengamme and Bergen-Belsen Holocaust memorial sites, where little physical evidence of the genocide remains. Constructed from over 3,000 images and bringing together interactive 360° photography and binaural audio recording, the virtual archives offer visitors a visual and auditory experience of specific locations within the memorial sites using standard web browser technology. These projects, now formally adopted by the Neuengamme memorial site as part of their visitor offering, open up otherwise inaccessible parts of the site which embody physical testimony with the potential to create new understandings of the narrative of the Holocaust. For instance, visitors can access an SS Guard Tower, providing a previously unavailable perpetrator’s perspective of the site, and an unsafe area of the main brickworks, which reveals the production processes and working conditions of the forced labour which took place. These experiences are augmented by location-specific information and archival records, such as documents and photographs, in order to provide further context for individual visitors but are commonly used by tour guides in order to enhance their oral presentations as well. The projects are also being utilised in order to establish a ‘virtual network’ amongst Holocaust memorial sites around the world. For instance, Museum44 are offering visitors the opportunity to access the Neuengamme virtual archive projects as part of their exhibition in Belgium. The ability to access physical testimony from remote locations also has the potential to create new understandings of the Holocaust