As the firsthand accounts of Holocaust survivors become increasingly scarce, the urgency to preserve these narratives has never been greater.

Comissioned by Illinois Holocaust Museum and award-winning production company East City Films, Letters from Drancy is a poignant virtual reality experience that illuminates the power of an unbreakable bond between a mother and her daughter during the Holocaust.

Filmed on location in Paris and Normandy in France, Letters from Drancy allows audiences to accompany Marion Deichmann on her daring childhood journey across the borders of Northern Europe, her heartbreaking separation from her mother, her escape with help from the French Resistance in Paris, and her vivid memories of the D-Day bombings in Normandy. Marion’s story is full of loss and longing, but also of the persevering love that endures throughout her life. It is a profound story of courage from those who selflessly offer humanity in the face of hatred.

East City Films came to us to develop a trilogy of VR documentaries for the Illinois Holocaust Museum, sharing the stories of Survivors Marion Deichmann, Rodi Glass and Doris Fogel, working with Darren Emerson, Mary Matheson and Charlotte Mikkelborg respectively on each film.

Built to be installed in the Illinois Holocaust Museum’s VR Cinema for the HTC Vive Pro, running on Nvidia RTX 4080’s and using Unity’s High-Definition Render Pipeline, the 3 films combine detailed and realistic 6-DOF 3D environments which blend seamlessly with 360° 5.5k stereoscopic film and third order ambisonic audio.