WDR AR 1933-1945

Let augmented reality take you right into the stories, and experience up close how children and teenagers experienced the Third Reich in Germany, England and Russia. The last contemporary witnesses are at an advanced age, over 80 years old. They were children during a time of horror. Now you can bring them into your home or classroom with the app WDR AR 1933-1945. In German, English and Russian!
As the witnesses tell their stories, you see 3D visual elements: German bombers flying through your room in attack formation. London burning right in the middle of your very classroom. An air raid shelter in Cologne collapsing before your eyes. A winter landscape sweeping you away to Leningrad. 360° in the snow!

HOW IT ALL WORKS
The app is easy to use: Aim your smartphone camera at an empty space on the floor from two metres away. As you aim, move your camera to scan the floor. A white circle appears. As soon as it is completely white, touch it. That is how you position the hologram of the contemporary witness. As she tells her story, you can look around the room and live the experience with your smartphone.

WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT
Content is being added to our app all the time. It consists of individual stories about the Nazi era. We start with Children of War. The next instalment, about Anne Frank, will be published in mid-2019.
Children of War is about World War II as seen through children’s eyes. There are three stories: Anne from Cologne experiences the war in an air raid shelter. “It was hell,” she says. Vera talks about the Blitz on London in which she loses her father. And Emma recalls the German Siege of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). Over a million people perish because Hitler is intent on starving the city.

WHAT AUGMENTED REALITY MEANS
Augmented reality, or AR for short, is technology that lets you place virtual images, holograms and additional information in real rooms. Augmented reality blends the real world with virtual elements. It lets the contemporary witnesses sit across from you or walk through the room and tell you what they experienced during the Nazi era. The stories are short, around three minutes, but very intense and very moving.
Use your tablet or smartphone (iOS 2017 or later) to bring all these 3D animations and holograms into any room you choose.

TECHNICAL NOTES
Use Wi-Fi to download the app! The full app has a data volume of about 1 GB. The benefit of the app’s shelf structure is that you can download, delete and re-load each story individually.