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
fi rm, and the Auschwitz-Birkenau State
Museum in Poland.
Featuring more than 700 original
objects and 400 photographs, the exhibit
spans three fl oors 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 identifi cation
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 IIera
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
A single red women’s dress shoe from Auschwitz.
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
PHOTO BY GABE HERMAN
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 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 fi ghting anti-Semitism every
day,” said Ronald Lauder, founder and
chairperson of the Auschwitz-Birkenau
Foundation Committee and president
of the World Jewish Congress. “We
fi nd 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 fi ght,”
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 fi rst 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 fi rst responders, and
New York City public school students
and educators.
Nordstrom, tech-based vet at Greenwich Lane
BY GABE HERMAN
The Greenwich Lane condo building,
at the former site of St. Vincent’s
Hospital on Seventh Ave.,
will soon have tenants in its three empty
retail spaces.
The Rudin Family, and its venture
partner Global Holdings Group, announced
the three retail leases, which
will now give Greenwich Lane full occupancy.
At 13 Seventh Ave., between W. 11th
and 12th Sts., the department store
company Nordstrom signed a lease for
2,413 square feet. It will open a Nordstrom
Local store, which will be a
“neighborhood service hub,” according
to the announcement. Services will
include online order pickup, alterations
and tailoring, and clothes styling.
At 15 Seventh Ave., at W. 12th St.,
there will be a start-up veterinary business
called Small Door. The company
was founded in 2017 and is tech-driven,
with a membership model, a mobile app
and 24/7 access to its medical team.
The 3,117-square-foot Village location
will open this fall and be the company’s
fi rst fl agship practice.
The third lease, for 3,500 square feet
at 1 Seventh Ave., at W. 11th St., was
completed with an unnamed national
retailer.
“We searched for the right location
to launch our concept for nearly a year
and considered many addresses,” said
Josh Guttman, co-founder and C.E.O.
of Small Door. “The Greenwich Lane
proved the perfect fi t for Small Door, as
an upscale, pet-friendly development in
the heart of Greenwich Village.”
The three retail spaces are currently
vacant. At another space in the development,
at 7 Seventh Ave., between 11th
and 12th Sts., Northwell Health Physician
Partners is operating with several
specialty practices.
“The prime location of this project in
the heart of Greenwich Village makes
it the ideal spot for Nordstrom Local,
Small Door and our other retail tenant,”
said Michael Rudin, senior vice
president at Rudin Management Company.
The Greenwich Lane consists of fi ve
buildings and fi ve townhouses, centered
around a 14,000-square-foot landscaped
courtyard. Rudin also developed
the park across the street — which later
had a separately funded AIDS memorial
added — and is called the NYC AIDS
Memorial Park at St. Vincent’s Triangle.
Along with the AIDS Memorial,
the park has several slate medallions
inset into its paving that pay tribute to
St. Vincent’s Hospital, which was at the
location from 1849 until April 2010.
8 May 16, 2019 TVG Schneps Media