June 3rd, 2010

Plans for the New Exhibition in Auschwitz

For more than two years now an international expert commission, initiated and invited by the Auschwitz Memorial and State Museum, has been working on the concept of a new central exhibition for the memorial at the former German concentration and extermination camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The current exhibition in the camp was designed by Auschwitz survivors in 1955. Commenting on the situation, the President of the International Auschwitz Committee, Noach Flug, said: “Since 1947 survivors have worked at this place to ensure that what happened in Auschwitz remains as visible as possible, and to ensure that it is not forgotten. The exhibition of 1955 sees and describes Auschwitz through the eyes of the former prisoners, but it also reflects the background of the political situation in the divided world of those times. Today our scope of vision has become freer, broader and more diversified. We are directing our gaze towards Auschwitz and Birkenau: the annihilation of the Jewish people from the whole of Europe, the annihilation of the Sinti and Roma, the murder of so many Polish people, of Soviet prisoners of war, of political prisoners – also from the whole of Europe. This all has to be told in the new exhibition in such a way that it reaches the minds and hearts of the visitors – especially those of the young people among them.”

The survivors Noach Flug and Marian Turski are working on this new exhibition concept on behalf of the International Auschwitz Committee. Others involved in the preparations include Christoph Heubner, Vice President of the IAC, and the former director of the Dachau Memorial, Dr Barbara Distel. Now Barbara Distel presented her thoughts on the work of the international expert commission [more].

Barbara Distel: The Concept
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