Through the Illinois Holocaust Museum’s virtual reality headsets, participants at the library’s upcoming film events can journey with courageous Holocaust survivors on an immersive “walk” into their hometowns and World War II concentration camps. 

Between Tuesday, May 27th and Friday, June 6th, the library is offering the following five films, which average 17 minutes each and can be viewed independently or all together for 83 minutes total. Film descriptions:

• A Promise Kept, walks along with Fritzie Fritzshall through her hometown and Auschwitz Concentration Camp as she recounts the horror and the bravery of those she survived with.

• Don’t Forget Me, is based on George Brent’s experience in Auschwitz, Mathhausen and Ebensee concentration camps.

• Letters from Drancy, follows Marion Deichmann, when as a child she travelled across Northern Europe with her mother, evading the Nazi’s with support from the French Resistance.

• Walk to Westerbork, survivor Rodi Glass will take us to her hometown in Amsterdam and the transit camps she was interred in, Westerbork and Vittel.

• Escape to Shanghai, features Doris Fogel as she journeyed from Germany to Shanghai, China, one of the only open country for European Jews during the Holocaust.

The films average 17 minutes each and can be viewed independently or all together for 83 minutes total. Library staff and volunteers will help participants set up the headsets. No registration is required. View our table below: