The initiative, announced at the Cannes Film Festival under the title “Picture from Auschwitz,” uses high-resolution 3D scans to reproduce every exterior detail of Auschwitz I at a 1:1 scale. Future stages will map interiors and the grounds of nearby Auschwitz II-Birkenau.
Museum director Piotr Cywiński said filming at the physical site is restricted to documentaries, but demand for dramatic productions about the camp is rising.
“Such films can deepen awareness and emotional engagement with the history of Auschwitz and the Shoah,” he told the media.
Spokesman Bartosz Bartyzel, who conceived the project, said the scans were captured by a team led by Polish visual-effects specialist Maciej Żemojcin. The resulting Virtual Film Location is “the only original, certified digital depiction” of the camp and will be licensed for projects ranging from television documentaries to Hollywood blockbusters, he said.
Auschwitz survivor and photographer Ryszard Horowitz, part of a Cannes panel launching the scheme, welcomed the effort.
“Everything that remains of the camp must be preserved,” he said. “This new technology will make it easier to tell authentic stories.”
Set up by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland, Auschwitz became a symbol of the Holocaust, where about 1.1 million people—mostly Jews—were murdered. The post-war museum draws more than two million visitors a year.
Curators have long resisted requests to dramatize scenes inside the historic grounds, citing the need to protect their integrity.
The new virtual re-creation will allow filmmakers to build accurate sets or integrate digital environments without setting foot on the site, Bartyzel said. Work on mapping Birkenau is expected to finish next year.
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Source: PAP, RMF24