The Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and Memorial is working on a project to create a certified digital replica of the preserved concentration and extermination camp which can be used as a virtual film location.
The initiative is likely to draw considerable interest from the film world because the production of fiction feature films is not permitted at the memorial, situated on the site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp in southern Poland, where around 1.1 million people died in horrific conditions during World War Two.
Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest, for example, was made in cooperation with the memorial and museum, which gave the production access to camp documents, survivors’ testimonies, and expert guidance, and also allowed it to scan parts of the area of the former camp.
However, none of the dramatic reconstructions were filmed on the site. Documentary films are allowed to film with permission, which meant the final sequences of the Oscar-nominated drama, showing the work of the museum and the objects that belonged to victims, could be shot on its premises.
The groundbreaking digital replica project, bannered Picture From Auschwitz, will be presented in a panel at the Cannes Film Festival’s Marche du Film as part of its technology and innovation focused Cannes Next Strand.
Polish director Agnieszka Holland and Polish American photographer Ryszard Horowitz; an Auschwitz survivor, who was one of the youngest survivors on Schindler’s List, will join Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation CEO Wojciech Soczewica, Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum Paweł Sawicki and the project’s creative producer Maciej Żemojcin on stage to talk about the project.
Żemojcin and his team are using cutting-edge 3D scanning technologies to create a certified digital replica which preserves and protects the site’s historical integrity.
“The certified digital replica offers filmmakers a revolutionary tool rooted in accuracy and ethical storytelling helping combat denial and distortion at a time when misinformation is on the rise,” read a release announcing the project and panel.
“Designed for a wide range of films – from documentaries to large-scale Hollywood productions – Picture From Auschwitz supports the telling of the true story of the camp as out of numerous reasons the historical site is not and will not be accessible for filmmaking.”
The replica will feature every detail of the site from the “Arbeit Macht Frei” entry gate to its fence posts, with every brick or roof tile of its buildings meticulously documented, to reveal perspectives and details invisible to the naked eye. The data will be preserved and reprocessed over time as new technologies emerge.
Żemojcin’s team has already completed a 1:1 digital replica of Auschwitz I using the most advanced spatial scanning tools available. Next steps in the project include completing the digital interiors of Auschwitz I, and the exteriors and interiors of Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp – securing the entirety of the Memorial site.
Licensing fees for the virtual replica will directly support the Memorial, which is marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the camp this year, and its mission of commemorating all victims, fighting antisemitism and all forms of hatred as well as raising reflection about our contemporary moral responsibility.
Partners on the project include the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and Memorial, Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, American Friends of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, Creative Media Europe, ATM Virtual and Leica Geosystems.
