Benno’s Light

When Benno’s Light began, there was no digital experience that could make a Holocaust survivor’s memory present and personal for a new generation.

The Claims Conference didn’t want another archive or documentary. They needed a way to reach young people; students, museum visitors, anyone with no direct connection to these events, and make them feel the weight and hope of a single life.

The challenge was to create an experience that could make memory feel present, personal, and human for a generation that will never meet a survivor.

Could we build an experience that transmits not only historical facts, but the emotional reality of survival, so that Benno’s story would not fade when the last witnesses are gone?

Benno’s light became the core mechanic. His emotional state set the tone of each scene, and users interacted by receiving and transmitting light at four key moments, each tied to someone who gave him hope.

This pivot required us to rewrite the storyboard, redesign character animation, rethink the VR interface, and rebuild the sound design—all in three weeks.

The story demanded a different approach.

Inside the Experience: A story told through light
The user meets Benno Kern, born in Vienna in 1927, speaking directly in his native language. The journey is divided into six chapters.

The first and last are live-action videos of Benno today, introducing and closing his story. The four central chapters are interactive 3D scenes, rendered in a non-photoreal, brush-textured style inspired by memory and chiaroscuro painting.

Navigation for the experience is structured like a vintage newspaper, with six panels leading to six chapters. Users can move freely between them, while the emotional progression of the story remains clear.

There are no clickable hotspots or pop-ups. Historical context, dates, places and archival imagery, live in a dedicated editorial section, accessible at any time but never interrupting the testimony itself.

The core interaction is light. At four key moments, users are invited to receive or transmit light. On desktop this happens through simple interactions; in VR, through physical gesture. Light passes from one character to Benno, or from Benno to the world, illuminating the scene and advancing the narrative.

The most intense moment comes during the death march. Benno stumbles. A Nazi raises his gun. Benno’s father steps in to take the bullet.

The user transmits the final light as Benno covers his father with snow.

The visual language is deliberate: white dominates throughout the experience—tablecloth, snow, smoke while deep bordeaux accents thread through the story.

Characters are modelled with strong silhouettes and no pupils, focusing attention on presence rather than likeness. Sound design evolves alongside each chapter’s emotional tone, helping shape the atmosphere of the experience.

Behind the scenes, the entire project is powered by NanoGL, our proprietary rendering engine, enabling real-time, brush-textured environments and nuanced lighting directly in the browser.

The experience is available in English and German across desktop, mobile, tablet and Meta Quest, with everything rendered in real time via WebXR.

What This Makes Possible

As eyewitnesses become fewer, the challenge is no longer simply preserving history, but finding new ways to carry it forward.

Benno’s Light explores how digital experiences can help bridge that gap, creating moments of connection that feel personal, immediate and human. By placing an individual story at the centre of the experience, memory becomes something users actively engage with rather than passively observe.

Benno’s Light is the second in a growing series of projects developed with the Claims Conference, each exploring new ways to preserve testimony and make it accessible for future generations.