The producer behind First, Jonah Hirsch, is turning his attention toward another historical VR encounter with Anne.

As a child doing my school-assigned reading of The Diary of a Young Girl, I drew upon the words of Anne Frank’s diary to picture what life must have been like for her and her family during their two years of hiding during the Holocaust. Soon enough, youngsters of a new generation will be able to virtually step into the scene itself.

That’s thanks to Jonah Hirsch, whose forthcoming VR experience Anne aims to accurately recreate yet another slice of history.

Early design render of Anne Frank’s room, one of 7 rooms in the “secret annex” in which she and 7 others hid for two years (July 5th,1942 - August 4, 1944). It includes her bed (with the Teddy Bear) on the left, the door and windows leading to the shared bathroom, the desk at which she wrote her diary, the diary itself sitting on the desk, and the bed for Albert Dussel, another “annex” member.
Early design render of Anne Frank’s room, one of 7 rooms in the “secret annex” in which she and 7 others hid for two years (July 5th,1942 – August 4, 1944). It includes her bed (with the Teddy Bear) on the left, the door and windows leading to the shared bathroom, the desk at which she wrote her diary, the diary itself sitting on the desk, and the bed for Albert Dussel, another “annex” member.

Hirsch’s prior VR project, First, took viewers to the very place and time of the Wright Brother’s famous first flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Curated by the Smithsonian, First wasn’t just graphically impressive, it was designed to be historically accurate too, with a precise virtual model of the glider with details right down to the initial flight checks and starting the engine with a hand crank.

Anne will strive for the same impressive visuals and historical accuracy as First.

First_StillThree_MATTERvr“Like Wilbur and Orville’s first flight, I look for specific moments in history that have universal appeal, are significant in subject matter, and lend themselves well to a virtual reality experience,” said Hirsch. “Recreating history is really kinda cool, much more fun than reading about it in a textbook.”

Hirsch has enlisted the help of filmmaker Danny Abrahms while the project is being financed by CGO Studios, a newly formed virtual reality production company based in Los Angeles, and the visual effects work is being done by Dilated Pixels, also based in Los Angeles.

So far the creators have not said when the project will be released or how it will be distributed.

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Ben Lang
Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • Shlomo Shekelstein

    That’s right, you filthy goyim! Now you can experience the shoah in a virtual narrative!