In July, 2017, the first ever traveling exhibition about the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz was announced by Musealia (the Spanish company in charge of the organisation) and the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. Out of the 1150 original pieces being displayed, 835 come from the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, such as a barrack, letters and testimonials, gas masks, and remainders from the gas chambers. The remaining pieces have been lent directly by survivors and their families, as well as other institutions.

The exhibition subtitled, “Not long ago. Not far away”, comes at a critical time when the number of survivors are fading to zero and the knowledge of the younger generations about the Holocaust is diminishing. Furthermore, countries around the world are experiencing growing anti-Semitism and Populism. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum Director, Dr. Piotr M. A. Cywiński, reminds everyone in his words why memory is fundamental: “Memory that is intelligent, reflexive, is not limited to the past, but allows you to define the reality and project the future. Otherwise, why would we even need memory?”. Thus it is critically important to share the Holocaust artifacts with the largest possible crowd, to remind us of the structuralised hatred and inhumanity that the concentration camps represented. The exhibition will not only focus on the Holocaust itself, that in Auschwitz-Birkenau killed approximately 1.1 million prisoners, but will follow the escalation of Populism in Germany after World War I as well. 

Seven years in the making, the exhibition will first stop in Madrid around December 2017, to continue across Europe and North America in a tour that will reach 14 cities (to be announced later) in seven years. The endeavour is to educate and immerse young people to whom the Holocaust could just be a misunderstood part of history. Several Jewish leaders are supporting the project that will expose the horror of the Holocaust to a wider audience than the almost 2 million people who visit Auschwitz every year.

To know more, read:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/26/arts/design/auschwitz-exhibit-tour-holocaust.html?_r=0
http://auschwitz.org/en/museum/news/new-international-travelling-exhibition-on-the-history-of-auschwitz,1268.html