A VR tour of Auschwitz narrated by three Holocaust survivors

Listen to firsthand accounts by Holocaust survivors

Hear the tragic history of the Holocaust through the words of those who were there. Multiple survivors are interviewed about their experiences. Organized by topic and birthplace, this collection of videos puts the width and breadth of the Holocaust into better perspective, and with a more personal touch as well.

Wish you could experience life on the Western Front of WWI?

Virtual reality offers a new perspective on World War I in this nearly 14-minute video. National WWI Museum and Memorial Public Program Specialist James Taub demonstrates the War Remains VR experience side by side with what he sees through the headset. A grim and detailed simulation of trench warfare combined with Taub's observations and insights.

Experience the Apollo 11 mission in VR

Take one small step today and experience the historic moon-landing through VR. This video showcases how VR is allowing the public to travel through space through the eyes of those who lived through it.

Take a virtual tour through the White House interior

This immersive 360° tour from the White House Historical Association lets you explore key rooms and see historical details not visible during in-person visits.

A virtual reality experience of Machu Picchu

If you can’t make it to the Andes, this virtual-reality experience—created using 360-degree cameras, and 3D modeling and sound design—is the next best thing. It lets you explore all the site’s major landmarks, including the Sun Temple and the Temple of the Condor, while listening to the sound of the wind whipping through the ruins, birdsong, and audio commentaries from expert guides.

Some vacationers flock to the sites of tragedies

Auschwitz, Chernobyl, Gettysburg, and more have all become tourist destinations, despite the horrible events that have occurred at the sites. The phenomenon is sometimes called "dark tourism," a trend that seems to be spurred by interest in history, morbid curiosity, and popular culture (like HBO's series "Chernobyl").

A map of WWII refugees and their stories

Trace the paths of different people and families on this interactive map as they made their escape from the Nazi regime. Primary and secondary sources like letters, documents, memoirs and diaries, photos, interviews, and news clippings showed how many found a path to freedom, from the Kindertransport to individual stories.

Private home footage of Hitler and his wife, Eva Braun

Care to see what else Hitler and his wife, Eva Braun, were up to during World War II? Then check out this National Archives footage. Some of the videos have been colorized, and all were taken from a collection titled Motion Picture Films Confiscated from Foreign Countries and Sources, between 1940–44.

Take an interactive tour through Australia's Great Barrier Reef

This adventure offers spherical panoramas of marine wildlife, including manta rays, loggerhead turtles, and bottlenose dolphins. The shipwreck of a luxury passenger vessel and coral reef systems are also explored with underwater audio recordings of the environment.

A virtual tour of Philadelphia’s American Revolution Museum

Philadelphia’s Old City hosts one of the largest museums on the American Revolution. This virtual tour allows you to view the museum’s exhibits as if you were there by zooming in on descriptions, browsing images, and learning about artifacts, portraits, and more.

‘Shoah’ director criticized ‘Schindler’s List’ for its portrayal of the Holocaust

“I was watching the Spielberg film, and I thought he’ll never go so far,” Claude Lanzmann said. “And he did. But he even created suspense … And these people, all of them are actors. All of them. They’re actors. They do not look like people who have had these experiences. It is an adventure film.”

Exploring Kristallnacht

Nov. 9 and 10, 1938, saw Nazi members break into Jewish stores and homes across Germany in retaliation for the assassination of a German diplomat by a Polish Jew. The event—called "Kristallnacht," meaning "night of the broken glass"—was tacitly condoned by the German authorities at the time. This richly produced interactive explores the events of Kristallnacht guided by one of its survivors, Charlotte Knobloch.

An analysis on using VR to help train orthopedic surgeons

Virtual reality simulation provides surgical trainees with an immersive 3D experience that allows them to practice skills and operations in a safe yet realistic environment.

Exploring the White City of Tel Aviv, the capital of the Bauhaus style

In 1933, around 60,000 German Jews fled the Nazi regime for what was then Mandatory Palestine. Among them were six Bauhaus students, who accommodated the influx by working with nearly 150 other architects to design over 4,000 buildings that reflected their alma mater's modernist style. This Smarthistory article on the area, now a UNESCO World Heritage site, allows you to see several of its buildings from the comfort of your couch.

Explore the British Museum's Pompeii and Herculaneum collection

This video tour utilizes the British Museum’s collection—featuring frescoes, tools, cookware, jewelry, and even carbonized food—to reconstruct daily life in Pompeii and Herculaneum, offering an expert view of how people lived before the eruption transformed both cities.

Journey through Norway’s frozen frontier

This 44-minute video takes viewers through the Arctic landscapes of Norway, as they learn about the area’s life and challenges. Viewers can observe the wildlife that thrives in this harsh setting—from reindeer and polar bears to red foxes. They...

Wander through an Oktoberfest celebration

Feel like you’re in the center of the action with this walk-through video of the modern Oktoberfest experience. A former Munich resident covers everything you could want to know, including how to not anger the locals with boorish behavior. She explains the layout of the grounds, what to wear (hint: not cheap, mass-produced German costumes), and a few vital German phrases. Don’t forget to say "bitte" (thank you) when ordering your next round!

Take a 3D tour of the Hajj, Islam's annual pilgrimage to Mecca, undertaken by more than 1.5 million Muslims each year.

The history of David Attenborough's adopted Jewish sisters, taken in before World War II

Among the thousands of children who were brought to Great Britain from Nazi-controlled Europe during the Kindertransport rescue operation were Irene and Helga Bejach, who spent seven years living with the Attenboroughs. Irene contributed to David's interest in the natural world by giving him a piece of amber containing prehistoric creatures.

Take a 360-degree look inside Hong Kong's coffin homes

Hong Kong's lack of affordable housing is forcing hundreds of thousands of residents to live in "coffin homes" — a tiny partitioned apartment that is about the size of a coffin. Experience life inside a coffin home through this 360 VR video.

Explore the history, structure, and species of Australia's Great Barrier Reef with this interactive journey narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

Explore the decommissioning work at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station

This virtual tour explores the nuclear disaster site, which resulted from a magnitude 9.1 earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, and the various processes underway to remove debris, fuel, and contaminated water.

Watch a guided video tour of the Museum of Malware Art

The site includes installations, sculptures, textiles, musical pieces, and galleries inspired by malicious software and related technologies, including the ILOVEYOU virus, encryption protocols from ransomware attacks, and the Industroyer malware framework used by Russia to cut power to Ukraine.

A virtual tour of the Hajj pilgrimage

Over 2 million pilgrims travel to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, every year during the Hajj pilgrimage, a central tenet of the Islamic faith. The route traces one the Prophet Mohammed is said to have once walked, and involves challenging rituals including...

Experience a year inside an American courthouse with 'Serial' Season 3

Season Three of "Serial" immerses listeners in a Cleveland courthouse for a year, showcasing how everyday justice unfolds—through plea deals, judicial decisions, and the quiet mechanics behind daily life in the criminal justice system.

Explore this interactive visualization of the IVF journey as a parent or child

This step-by-step graphic takes the viewer through different challenges and stages of the IVF journey, from a parent's and a child's perspective, including a parent's struggle when other families become pregnant around them, even as IVF is not working for their family.

After 25 people used virtual reality headsets to practice flying with virtual wings—flapping their arms—their visual cortex responded to the wings almost as if they were real arms, treating them as body parts.

Take a 360-degree tour of the particle detector at the Large Hadron Collider

The ATLAS experiment integrates concentric layers of sensors to analyze the properties of particles that emerge from the collisions of accelerated matter. More than 3 petabytes of data—equivalent to 600 years of music—can be expected to be collected from this experiment yearly (VR device-compatible).

Explore our favorite visualization of the immense scale of space, from an astronaut to the size of the observable universe

Explore the archaeological treasures of Pompeii, the city buried under volcanic ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE.

This real-time tracking of the hantavirus cruise ship outbreak in May 2026 offers a unique glimpse into the global reach of the outbreak and whether the virus sickened passengers and their communities around the world.

Visualize how CRISPR-Cas9—a type of immune system used by single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses—targets and makes precise changes to a gene's DNA.

Against his wishes, Albert Einstein's brain was removed before his cremation, and the pathologist responsible stored it for decades in mason jars within a beer cooler.

See a 3D reconstruction of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital that was home to an estimated population of 200,000 to 400,000.

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.

View the ten deadliest tornadoes in US history.

Dorothy's famous entrance into Oz in 'The Wizard of Oz' relied on analog tricks, including a body double and sepia-toned paint, as much as it did on technology

Objects can be 3D printed with light by projecting 2D computerized tomography (CT) scans onto rotating cylinders of resin, which solidify upon exposure.

In 1915, workers recovered a submarine-like vessel from the Chicago River, prompting fears of German espionage

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace

After her fellow cult members tried to kill her with an LSD-infused hamburger, one member of the Manson Family, the murderous cult led by Charles Manson, decided to testify against the group's leader.

The tragic Pulitzer Prize-winning image 'The Vulture and the Little Girl' (1993) generated controversy, raised concerns about ethics in photography, and eventually led to the photographer's death.

In 1984, Operation Smash Hit intentionally crashed a 239-ton train into a nuclear waste canister at 100 miles per hour to prove the canister's safety, which remained completely intact and lost just 0.29 of its 100 pounds of pressure.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is the largest ground war in Europe since World War II in casualties, forces mobilized, and displacement of civilians.

Listen to an in-depth conversation on the links between Parkinson's disease and herbicide exposure and the challenging pace of scientific investigation.

A vending machine run with Anthropic's AI went out of business after it was convinced to give away items for free and sell a video game console.

See how Budweiser's famous Clydesdales spend their days at Warm Springs Ranch, where roughly 70 to 80 of the beer brand's giant horses can be found at any given time.

Hear 50 years of iconic hip-hop samples, the genre's foundational looped tracks

The Brothers Grimm were lawyers before they were storytellers, but became interested in fairy tales as they began investigating how rules and customs had been passed down through cultures.

Existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre coined the famous phrase 'Hell is—other people' in his play 'No Exit'