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SLIPPING ON A virtual reality headset, the indelible images come into view: the steel rails, the imposing brick gatehouse, the rows of identical barracks, the gas chambers, the crematoria.
Thanks to the work of the Bavarian state crime office (LKA) in Munich, German prosecutors and police investigating the last living Nazi war criminals can now immerse themselves in a highly precise 3D model of Auschwitz.
The VR death camp offers 21st-century fact-finding technology for the final Holocaust trials, in a twilight bid by the German justice system to address the atrocities committed seven decades ago.
“It has often been the case that suspects say they worked at Auschwitz but didn’t really know what was going on,” Jens Rommel, head of the federal office investigating Nazi war crimes, told AFP.
“Legally, the question is about intent: must a suspect have known that people were being taken to the gas chambers or shot? This model is a very good and very modern tool for the investigation because it can help answer that question.”
Created by LKA digital imaging expert Ralf Breker, the VR model brings to life in astonishing detail the notorious Nazi-run camp in occupied Poland where more than 1.1 million people died during World War II.
“To my knowledge, there is no more exact model of Auschwitz,” Breker, 43, said in an interview at his workshop.
It is much, much more precise than Google Earth. We use the most modern VR goggles on the market. When I zoom in, I can see the smallest detail.
Visitor from the future
Wearing the headset, prosecutors, judges and co-plaintiffs can have the chilling experience of moving about 1940s-era Auschwitz at will.
An eerie stillness pervades the scene as a seemingly endless stream of identical avatar prisoners march past the virtual visitor from the future. Even the trees stand where they once were, to determine whether they could have blocked the view from a certain vantage point.
“The advantage the model offers is that I get a better overview of the camp and can recreate the perspective of a suspect, for example in a watchtower,” Breker said.
The case that gave rise to the project was that of Johann Breyer, a Czech-born retired machinist accused of complicity in the killing of 216,000 Hungarian Jews at Auschwitz.
Prosecutors in the Bavarian town of Weiden put together the case with the help of an early version of the 3D model.
But the 89-year-old American died in June 2014, just hours before a US court approved his extradition to stand trial.
This year, a more advanced model was used in the case of former SS guard Reinhold Hanning, who was convicted in June of complicity in 170,000 murders at Auschwitz and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment.
Rommel, 44, said his team is investigating a few dozen suspects, of whom he estimates a “double-digit number” are still alive and could potentially face court.
‘So many shocking details’
To make his computer-generated recreation of hell on earth, Breker used materials from the Warsaw surveyor’s office and more than a thousand period photographs to create orthophotos, the uniform-scale base maps onto which buildings can be overlaid.
Then he travelled to Auschwitz twice in 2013 to fill in the gaps.
He and a colleague used a terrestrial laser scanner to create 3D images of the structures that were left standing after the Germans destroyed much of the camp while retreating from the advancing Soviet army.
The buildings that were ripped down or blown up in 1945 had to be reconstructed virtually with the help of the vast Auschwitz archives.
“The Germans were very precise — we were able to rebuild every single structure because we had blueprints for each one,” Breker said.
The ruddy-cheeked career investigator turned pale as he recounted what he learned there.
“Our team only investigates murders and we’re usually the first at a crime scene so there’s a lot we see that is very unpleasant,” said Breker, a seven-year veteran of the force.
But when I got back to the hotel room each night after being at Auschwitz, I was shattered. We spent each day with the head of the archive and he provided us with so many shocking details.
‘No words for it’
Breker recounted the story of the campaign between May and July 1944 when some 438,000 Hungarian Jews were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
The sheer volume of people gassed and cremated every day created such intense heat that it cracked the chimneys, leading the SS to burn bodies on pyres outside the crematoria.
“The SS men then actually built drains for the fat to collect from the bodies, which could be used to fuel the fire for the next round of corpses,” Breker said.
“There are truly no words for it,” he whispered. ”Unbelievable.”
The LKA said that once the last criminal probes are closed, it would in theory be willing to lend its model to Holocaust memorial sites such as Yad Vashem or Auschwitz itself, giving visitors a visceral experience of the camp.
“Of course we’d have to be extremely careful no one stole it — the nightmare would be abuse of the data,” such as the creation of a computer game, Breker said.
He said VR technology was set to become a staple in criminal investigations around the world.
“In two or three years, you’ll be able to enter the scene of every serious crime virtually,” he said.
The LKA has already started using VR as part of an investigation it reopened two years ago into a far-right attack in 1980 at Munich’s Oktoberfest beer festival which killed 13 people.
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They really don’t understand do they
He should be removed from his position, and put in prison for incitement to murder. Distancing themselves is simply not good enough.
Probably because they actually agree with him but don’t want to admit it publicly.
Exactly Sean, a govt minister in one of the worlds most populous countries puts a contract to kill on somebody’s head and he’s not even removed from his post?!?
Unbelievable. So the minister says its OK to murder. Come on Paskistan. Arrest him!
They locked up Afridi the man who helped the US capture Bin Laden. Most Pakistanis love the minister’s comments and so do the other politicans who are “distancing” themselves for politican reasons/US Aid. If the film-maker lived in Pakistan he would have been executed by Pakistani Blashpemy Laws.
The Americans Give $1.6billion annually to Egypt, not sure how much they give to Pakistan but they did cut their aid by a few hundred million dollars after the imprisonment of the doctor, it was the Americans way of protesting at his arrest and imprisonment. It was also obvious to all that certain elements in Pakistani intelligence were aiding Al Qaeda and Bin Laden and hiding him under their noses.
You have to wonder at the hypocrisy, this Egyptian Copt living in America makes a poor quality film about Muslims which tells of their violent nature.
Muslims around the world then protest about the film – violently, killing many people and causing enormous damage, saying that their’s is a religon of peace and tolerance. This is topped off by a government minister in Pakistan calling for his “brothers” in the Taliban and Al Qaeda to help and kill the maker of the film, he’d put up a reward of $100,000 for the “noble deed”. Not one of the other Pakistani ministers objected to this, they just looked on solemnly.
What did we learn from this? The White House, Obama and other politicians will be quick to condem anything that criticises Islam, but anything that takes the mick out of Christianity and not a word from them. Just look at what that auld wan did to that fresco of Christ in Spain, and she wants paying now. Not a word.
Then we learn that Pakistani government ministers are bestest buddies with the Taliban and Al Qaeda, and none of their own government even raises an eyebrow. Who knew?
Pakistan has regularly been not far off from a failed state. Yet the US had no problem funding and allowing the Pakistanis to develop their nuclear weapons programme. The US also turned a blind eye when Pakistan sold their nuclear expertise to North Korea for profit.
Why is the US concerned re Iranian nuclear programme? Nothing to do with oil or thwarting Chinese influence in region.
Have you a source to the assertion that the USA funded the Pakistani nuclear program? I’m under the impression that it was the Saudis who bankrolled it and the US were as surprised as everyone else when Pakistan officially became a nuclear power.
Barry, the US were far from surprised. They knew what Pakistan was up at every step of their nuclear programme. Look up the book ‘Deception – Pakistan, The United States and the Global Nuclear Weapons Conspiracy’ by Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott Clark. A really researched, detailed fantastic read on this whole issue. The US has a lot to answer for.
I’ll have a look at that, thanks.
Pakistan will waffle on about religious and regional sensibilities blah blah blah. They will do nothing because they are an Islamic theocracy .
This some what gives an explanation to how Osama bin laden could hide in Pakistan for years.
And why the Americans never told the Pakistani officials what their Bin Laden plans were.
American arrogance, most people thought. It looks like the Americans know a lot more than what most anti yank and conspiracists think. I’m not saying they were right or wrong “to go in” as they did, who am I to make that call, but Bin Laden had declared war on that country and the Americans really do not have any friends in that part of the world. It looks like they are on their own. It could be scarier if the republicans were in power.
It looks like, to me, they did the only thing they could.
When you see things like this, our government aren’t all bad…
They’re still not great though…
Surely the only way to distance themselves is by removing him from office? I wonder how Obama will feel if the film-maker is killed. As president he should be protecting his citizens right to free speech not denouncing it.
This maniac can’t run the Railways in Pakistan and the rail sustem is closer to extintion by the day that passes under his leadership. He is offering $100000 ( out of the American doled money ) to the would-be assasin . It is a sad story of Pakistan today.
Reminds me of that wise old proverb, goes something like “Hey Pakistan* Does your granny have a fan** ?? Does it Sm……… ?”
Personally I taught the guy should have got an Oscar . Bravo bravo .
What is the fascination with Bin Laden? Who cares.
You would have to be a complete dimwit to even consider the idea that he was somehow involved in 9/11.
“You would have to be a complete dimwit to even consider the idea that he was somehow involved in 9/11.”
I guess the overwhelming majority of Irish and American people are “dimwits” by your expert standards. Great another “one world order” “conspiracy theory” genius. That’s weird Palestinian Americans were cheering on the day of the attacks in Jersey City shouting “death to America” and partying. I bet all the attacks by Radical-Muslims in Germany, UK, Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, France, etc. after 9/11 were also part of a conspiracy. Not to mention the failed plot in Ireland, against the Israeli Embassy in Dublin. Which could have killed hundreds of Irish also, since the Israeli Embassy shares their building with Irish Companies, by passers on the street, and neighboring buildings?
The same guy who talks about “Syrian Rebels” also believes that 9/11 was an entirely inside job.
Who knew?
are you mates with jim corr?
An anonymous seagull poster.
Fly in, drop a load of shite and then scuttle off.
I never really pay attention to these anonymous seagulls – errrrr except in this case.
Move on!
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