Trailblazing VR Project Offers Quest for Truth Into Nazi Crimes During WWII

Tailored to meet the needs of a generation inclined to choose infotainment and gaming over traditional formats, "Nuremberg: VRdict of Nations" is a brand new experimental VR project launched by the Rossiya Segodnya media group via Steam - an online video game digital platform from game developer Valve.

Timed to the beginning of the Nuremberg Trials (20 November 1945 -1 October 1946), the interactive project tasks users with collecting evidence and substantiating the charges against the main defendants in the Tribunal - Nazi criminals.

Users first find themselves in the Spandau Prison dining room, which after the war held top Nazi leaders convicted in the Nuremberg Trials. It is reminiscent of a scene depicted in the legendary WWII photograph showing Hermann Göring, Karl Dönitz, Alfred Rosenberg, Joachim von Ribbentrop, and Baldur von Schirach dining together.

Touching each of the men, participants find themselves suddenly propelled into the past of each one of the criminals. The user is to seek out and identify evidence of horrific crimes against humanity, accumulating them in a convincing dossier, such as the one that formed the basis of the verdicts handed down by the Nuremberg court in 1946. In doing so, one is granted a unique opportunity to rediscover the truth.

The team behind the unique VR project underscored in a press release that since the series of military tribunals 75 years ago, issues of humanism, human rights, and countering military aggression have remained just as challenging for contemporary society. The interactive project also comes out amid increasing attempts to manipulate and distort the role of the USSR in the victory over Nazism.

Work on "Nuremberg: VRdict of Nations" spanned several months and involved recreating pieces of furniture and interiors, studying thousands of photographic, documentary evidence and documents.

The project is a joint effort by the Rossiya Segodnya media group, a collaboration of scientists-historians and actors from the Gorky Moscow Art Theatre, with the support of the Russian Military-Historical Society.

The creative team studied the biographies of the Nazi criminals using their interviews, psychological portraits, reviews, and memoirs of contemporaries.

Several hundred unique 3D objects were created, complete with sound footage synthesised to recreate a realistic "immersive" environment.

Viewing is available in three formats: VR, mobile, and browser versions - and will require the use of HTC Vive, Valve Index, Oculus Rift, or Oculus Quest VR headsets connected via Link.

Also collaborating on the project were the Russian Multimedia Art Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Russian History, Russian State Library, Central Armed Forces Museum, and Russian State Historical Archive.