The intent behind Hershel's Bunker is to create an interactive memorial to the people who survived and the family that risked their lives for neighbors. The name derives from the fact that Hershel the eldest son of the Ressler family was the one who convinced the Swieton's to hide the family. Hershel himself was captured, possibly tortured and did not survive.
Some Technicalities
This project was conceived and produced by Sandy Ressler (son of Murray one of the survivors). It was developed with Prefrontal Cortex a design company (ironically) from Germany. Prefrontal did most of the design and implementation and they have something called the Needle Engine a 3D graphics rendering and interaction system. The site is based on Unity unsing the Needle Engine plugin. The illustrations used throuout the site are based on real places however they are simply illustrations (made with the help of AI) and are not meant to be photographs of actual locations. The Insights sections of the Chapters contain real photos and real documents. The music was also developed by Prefrontal Cortex, with the exception of a singing section used by permission of Frieda Vizel (see credits section for details)
The site is free to use, non-commercial, and designed for classrooms, memorials, families, and anyone who wants to remember.
Son of one of the survivors. Conceived, designed and built Hershel's Bunker as a memorial and an educational resource — carrying forward the family story so that future generations can know these things happened.
The Institute for Visual History and Education holds the video testimonies of Murray Ressler and Rose Kohn. Their archive makes this — and thousands of other survivor stories — possible. The videos are copyright 2026 by the USC Shoah Foundation and may not be used for any purpose without their explicit permissison.
A German design company prefrontalcortex.de designed and developed the site. The 3D backgrouds for the chapters illustrations rendered as Gaussian splats giving the user a 3D feel to the spaces."