Auschwitz survivors are becoming increasingly angry and shaking their heads in disbelief at the announcement of and the reasoning behind the art performance entitled “Auschwitz on the beach” which will be shown at the documenta in Kassel.

In Berlin, Christoph Heubner, the Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee said:

“Nobody, neither a politician nor an artist, should misuse the name of Auschwitz for their own political campaigns or art experiments. This is also essential out of respect for the survivors who, despite the distance of time still often revisit Auschwitz in their memories and with their emotions, and still often picture the images of their murdered loved ones in their minds. The experiences, especially of Jewish prisoners in Auschwitz, of industrial ‘extermination’ in the gas chambers defies any comparison with the suffering and dying of refugees today. Anyone who invents comparisons and instrumentalizes terms such as “Zyklon B” and “extermination” in the debate surrounding refugees today, is simply seeking sensationalism as opposed to artistic enlightenment. It is a shame that a highly justified and important artistic and political concern, which shocks, appals and activates many people in Europe, should itself be discredited by these comparisons. False comparisons and sensationalist rhetoric will do no justice whatsoever to the feelings of the survivors or to the sufferings of the refugees.”