Exhibit brings home Auschwitz’s horrors
BY GABE HERMAN
A comprehensive exhibit about
the Auschwitz concentration
camp has opened at the Museum
of Jewish Heritage in Battery
Park.
“Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far
away” is produced in partnership
with Musealia, an international exhibition
firm, and the Auschwitz-Birkenau
State Museum in Poland.
Featuring more than 700 original
objects and 400 photographs,
the exhibit spans three floors of the
museum. It opened on May 8, the
anniversary of VE Day, 1945, when
the Allies celebrated Nazi Germany’s
surrender in World War II.
The artifacts on display are chilling,
and include personal items of
prisoners and Nazi objects, as well.
There are possessions of concentration
camp prisoners, like shoes,
buttons and suitcases. There are identification
tags and prisoner uniforms.
There is a Hitler Youth bugle, an SS
belt buckle and dagger, and Heinrich
Himmler’s personal SS helmet that
he wore. And there are materials that
were used for medical experiments
on prisoners, such as an operation
table, test tubes and other medical
instruments.
Outside the museum, located at
36 Battery Place, a German World
War II-era freight car has also been
installed.
Also in the exhibit are concrete
posts, isolators and barbed wire that
were once part of Auschwitz’s perimeter.
The devastating objects in the
exhibit are too numerous to name.
But they each bring to life some of
the profound horrors of the concentration
camp, where 1 million Jews
were murdered, along with tens of
thousands of others from groups the
Nazis viewed as “inferior” or “undesirable.”
Along with the hundreds of objects
and photos, there are video testimonials
of survivors throughout the exhibit.
There are models that show the
layout of Auschwitz, which was actually
a complex of three main camps
and nearly 50 sub-camps.
The exhibit is very informative, not
only about Auschwitz itself but the
historical context of the Nazi rise to
power and the history of modern anti
Semitism. Other persecuted groups
are also acknowledged, including the
Roma and Afro-Germans.
“We learn from this exhibition that
we cannot be bystanders, it is our
sacred duty to educate,” said Bruce
Ratner, chairperson of the board of
the Museum of Jewish Heritage, at a
press conference a week before the
exhibit’s opening. “We need to redouble
our efforts to educate, especially
PHOTO BY GABE HERMAN
An identification tag from
Auschwitz from 1942. FKL indicates
“female concentration
camp.” The red triangle indicates
a political prisoner, and SL
stands for Slovakia.
young people.”
A common theme at the press conference
was that the hatred on display
in the exhibit is not a thing of
the past.
“We are fighting anti-Semitism every
day,” said Ronald Lauder, founder
and chairperson of the Auschwitz-
Birkenau Foundation Committee
and president of the World Jewish
Congress. “We find out in country
after country that young people don’t
know about the Holocaust.”
Lauder noted that there are a lot of
populist ideologies with anti-Semitic
elements spreading in present-day
Europe.
“It’s something we have to fight,”
he said. “The only way to beat anti-
Semitism is through education —
teaching children about the horrors
of Auschwitz.”
Anti-Semitism is an increasing
problem in New York City, as well.
The New York Police Department
announced in early May that hate
crimes were up 67 percent in the
first quarter of 2019, including an 82
percent increase in anti-Semitic hate
crimes.
More than 2 million people visit
Auschwitz every year, noted Pawel
Sawicki, spokesperson for the
Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.
But he said this exhibit in Lower
Manhattan can give those who can’t
visit the actual site an experience,
and prompt them to ask, “What can
I do today?”
Timed tickets to the exhibit, along
with more information, are available
at Auschwitz.nyc. The exhibit —
which runs through Jan. 3, 2020 —
is free for Holocaust survivors, active
members of the military and first responders,
and New York City public
school students and educators.
PHOTO BY GABE HERMAN
Concrete posts, with porcelain electrical “isolators” and barbed wire
that were used on Auschwitz’s perimeter. The camp’s fence was electrified
PHOTO BY GABE HERMAN
to keep prisoners from escaping.
A single red women’s dress shoe from Auschwitz.
8 May 16 - May 29, 2019 DEX Schneps Media