Image credit – Christof Stache/AFP/Getty Images
Virtual reality can be used for all sorts of things, such as playing games, watching movies, making art, medical procedures, and now it seems that virtual reality can also be used to help solve crime. Over in Germany, authorities have taken advantage of the technology to catch and prosecute the last surviving Nazi war criminals.
How does this work? Basically using VR technology, it allowed for a 3D version of the Auschwitz concentration camp to be created. Based on this, investigators were able to explore the complex virtually and to determine if people working at the camps really did not know what was going on, which is apparently a very common defense.
According to Jens Rommel, head of the federal office that investigates Nazi war criminals, “It has often been the case that suspects say they worked at Auschwitz but didn’t really know what was going on. Legally, the question is about intent: must a suspect have known that people were being taken to the gas chambers or shot? This model is a very good and very modern tool for the investigation because it can help answer that question.”
The tool was used this year in the trial of former SS guard Reinhold Hanning, who in June was ultimately convicted of being complicit in 170,000 murders at Auschwitz and was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment. Hanning is one of the few remaining war criminals still alive that are linked to the Nazi era, and with this technology, it is hoped that it will help bring them to justice.
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