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The Center for Jewish History in Manhattan will run Inside Kristallnacht as a free VR field trip for middle and high school classes from 30 November 2026. In headsets, students hear Holocaust survivor Charlotte Knobloch describe the night of 9 November 1938 in Munich. The field trip is the first program of the Center’s Immersive Learning Initiative.
Each class visit lasts two to three hours at the Center, 15 West 16th Street. Students use VR headsets to move through illustrated scenes and archival material from Kristallnacht. They can put questions to Knobloch, and the software matches each question to one of her prerecorded answers.
An educator-led discussion follows the headset session. Teachers receive materials to prepare the class before the visit and to continue the lesson afterwards. The visit is free, and a grant pays for buses from Title I schools.
“Our partnership with the Claims Conference brings Charlotte Knobloch’s testimony into a setting where students can ask questions and reflect together,” said Gabriel Sanders, chief partnerships and engagement officer at the Center for Jewish History, who leads the initiative.
The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, known as the Claims Conference, commissioned Inside Kristallnacht and launched it in October 2024. The immersive studio makemepulse built it with USC Shoah Foundation, with Meta as a partner and support from UNESCO.
The same title runs in a web browser on the Claims Conference site.
The Center will also host Benno’s Light, a VR experience the Claims Conference produced about Benno Kern, an Austrian survivor of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Both titles follow the Center’s school program for Anne Frank The Exhibition, run with the Anne Frank House. The Museum of Jewish Heritage, also in Manhattan, began offering a VR tour of Auschwitz in 2024.
The Center built its headset program on a finished title from the Claims Conference, and grants cover the visit and the buses, so schools pay nothing. For XR studios, a 2024 title for headsets and browsers has moved into a museum program two years after launch.
What is the Inside Kristallnacht VR field trip?
A two-to-three-hour visit to the Center for Jewish History in Manhattan for middle and high school classes. Students watch Charlotte Knobloch’s testimony about Kristallnacht in VR headsets, ask her questions, and then join an educator-led discussion.
How much does the VR field trip cost?
It is free. A grant also pays for bus transport for students from Title I schools and other schools that need help.
When does the VR field trip start, and how do schools book?
From 30 November 2026. Schools book on the Center’s Inside Kristallnacht page or by email. Staff confirm a date within five to seven days.
Who made Inside Kristallnacht?
The Claims Conference commissioned it, and makemepulse built it with USC Shoah Foundation. Meta was a partner and UNESCO supported the project.
