In 1942, during the Second World War, Anne Frank, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her family were forced to go into hiding to escape persecution from the Nazis. For more than two years, the Franks and 4 others would live in the “Secret Annex” of an old office building in Amsterdam, sharing the burden of living in hiding in confined quarters with the constant threat of discovery.
The award winning Anne Frank House VR offers a unique and emotional insight into these two years. Experience the world-famous Secret Annex in a never before seen way. Travel back to the years of the Second World War and wander through the rooms of the Annex that housed the group of 8 Jewish people as they hid from the Nazis. Immerse yourself in Anne’s thoughts as you traverse each faithfully recreated room, thanks to the power of VR, and find out what happened to the Annex’ brave inhabitants.
Free
Genre:
Education, History
Use Case:
Humanities
Got questions on how to implement this app into your course? Email us at nexus@nyu.edu.
App Details
Gear
Supports Quest, Quest 2
Internet Connection:
Internet connection not required
Game Mode
Single User
Release Date
June 26, 2019
Space Required:
818 MB
Languages
English, Dutch, French (France), German, Hebrew, Portuguese (Portugal), Spanish (Spain)
Review:
The 25 minute experience demonstrates how VR is able to transport users around the world and bring experiences to users they will otherwise not be able to experience. The app expertly recreated the Amsterdam secret annex in which the Holocaust victim hid from the Nazis in 1942-1944.
Anne Frank House VR comes with 2 modes. “Story Mode” is where users watch a narrated documentary with moving pictures and documents of Anne Frank’s life whereas “Tour Mode” allows the users to free-roam around the Annex. “Tour Mode” is especially powerful when you realize that the spacious environment can quickly become claustrophobic when you factor in that a total of 8 people lived there. As you maneuver around the locations, you can see the attention to detail that went into recreating all the furniture and environments with very little if any textural pop-in that can ruin the experience. The environment can be slightly too small for taller users but that just adds to the overall experience of being in the annex.
Each environment has a number of interactables indicated by a quotation mark where users can trigger spoken narration on specific items and setpieces. Users can listen to the narration while still moving and exploring the location around them. Hand symbols on door knobs and latches indicate where users need to interact with to move onto new locations and footprint symbols indicate users where they need to stand. While most decorations are static and interactable, certain items can be freely picked up like the famous diary.
The Anne Frank House VR experience was definitely a powerful and emotional experience for users who knew of the story but may not have known all the details of this tumultuous 2 year experience. The Anne Frank House Charity in collaboration with Oculus has created a very high quality and well polished VR experience that can be recommended to users of all ages and users with any level of VR experience.
Suggestion for using it for learning and teaching: History related courses, first time VR experience
Rating: 5/5
Edited by ChatGPT