The Last Goodbye

The Florida Holocaust Museum is proud to be part of the museum premiere of the award-winning virtual reality film created by USC Shoah Foundation-The Institute for Visual History and Education: The Last Goodbye.

The Last Goodbye features survivor Pinchas Gutter’s visit to the site of the Nazi death camp Majdanek in Poland. Gutter is the only member of his family of four to have survived the Holocaust. The precedent-setting, fully immersive experience enables viewers to virtually visit the site with Gutter as he travels in life-sized projections through the railway car, gas chamber, shower room and barracks of Majdanek seven decades later.

Capturing Gutter’s testimony on-site and ensuring it was incorporated into the film was itself a feat of innovation. Thousands of photos were stitched together by an expert at the MPC (Moving Picture Company) to create three-dimensional images of the interiors to scale. Gutter’s video testimony, taken in the same spaces, was then incorporated into the film, providing a vivid environment in which he recounts his heartbreaking story of suffering, loss and survival. It stands as a testament to the strength of the human heart and the enduring power of hope and perseverance.

This presentation of The Last Goodbye is made possible through the strong partnership of North America’s leading Holocaust museums, The Florida Holocaust Museum, Illinois Holocaust Museum, Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust, and New York’s Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. Visitors to New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and St. Petersburg are discovering how emerging technologies can help us explore, study, and preserve evidence of the past.

First screened at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival, the 17-minute film is exhibited within an installation created by David Korins, the renowned designer of Broadway hits Hamilton and Dear Evan Hansen. The Last Goodbye has achieved critical acclaim and received numerous prestigious awards, including two Webby Awards and the ‘Creative Arts Award, VR – Documentary Jury Prize at the 2018 Lumiere Awards.

“The Last Goodbye” includes Testimony by PINCHAS GUTTER, Created by GABO ARORA & ARI PALITZ, Produced by STEPHEN D. SMITH, Co-Produced by USC SHOAH FOUNDATION, HERE BE DRAGONS, MPC VR and OTOY, Producers TIM DILLON, JONATHAN DOTAN, PATRICK MILLING-SMITH, SAMANTHA STORR, CHRIS MILK, Original Soundtrack by Dražen Bošnjak of Q Department, Edited by JENNIFER TIEXERA, Installation Experience by DAVID KORINS, and Executive Producers KATHY and RICHARD LEVENTHAL.