24-04-2025
QC community interacts with Holocaust survivors through virtual reality
The Quad Cities community has a chance to see history from a different perspective.
'Learning history is not something that is static,' said Trevor Meyers, Muscatine Community College's student engagement and residential life coordinator.
Muscatine Community College is offering the 'Journey Back: A Virtual Reality Experience' exhibit, which is open to the public.
'I thought that was pretty neat that we have technology like that now,' said Karlee Harris, a Louisa-Muscatine High School student.
'Journey Back' is an exhibit made possible through virtual headsets provided by the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center.
In total, there are five different films that cover the stories of various Holocaust survivors.
'It brings something to life and preserves these stories for posterity for years to come for when there are no more people that survived the Holocaust,' Meyers said. 'In each of these five films, it is a 360-immersive technology so you can look up, down, left, right, and all around you. You will see a video, pictures, or film.'
For Harris, the virtual reality experience was eye-opening.
'I thought it was pretty interesting that we were actually able to see it and visually learn, since not everyone is a textbook reader and can be like, 'Oh, that's what happened,'' Harris said. 'We can see it now, we can see how people felt, how they acted, and how basically their lives were transformed by this one event in history.'
'All of these survivors are at least 80 years or older, and so unfortunately that means every day we are losing these stories because they are passing away,' Meyers said. '(By learning) from a survivor you become a carrier of their legacy.'
Muscatine Community College will continue to host the exhibit until May 2, and it is free to attend.
To learn how to get tickets, click here.
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