Even if you’ve been to Auschwitz and other major camps the Germans established in a vast network of 42,500 ghettos, concentration camps and death camps, you’ll want to see the new exhibit at the Museum of Jewish Heritage: A Living Memorial to the Holocaust (MOJH), “Auschwitz, Not So Long Ago, Not So Far Away.”
This exhibition was the brainchild of Luis Ferreiro from San Sebastian, a designer, a non-Jewish Spaniard whose family owns Musealia, a company that produces traveling exhibits. After his brother’s untimely death in 2009, Ferreiro turned to Shoah survivor Victor Frankl’s classic, “Man’s Search of Meaning,” and was inspired to create this marvelous exhibit, in partnership with the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museums in 2009. It was curated by Professor Robert Jan von Pelt, a Dutch author and architectural historian who didn’t know he was Jewish until he was 11. An expert on Auschwitz, he was instrumental in discovering the evidence that gave historian Deborah Lipstadt’s defense lawyers the grounds to win the trial against Holocaust denier David Irving.
The traveling exhibit occupies three floors in the museum. One of the first things we see is the prescient statement of one of the most articulate survivors of the Holocaust, the chemist and writer Primo Levi, who said, “It happened, therefore it can happen again. This is what we have to say. It can happen, and it can happen everywhere.”
The exhibit, which contains an extensive collection of objects and documents on loan from 30 museums and private collections, includes an authentic German boxcar used for deporting Jews from Monowitz, one of Auschwitz’s sub-camps. It also displays a large range of hitherto unseen artifacts—personal possessions of SS officers, a massive soup cauldron, a woman’s shoe, a handmade birthday card a prisoner in Dachau sent his wife and a tallit katan worn by Mendel Rosenberg, who borrowed it to wear while praying. Beaten nearly to death for this act of spiritual resistance, he rescued it from the barbed wire fence his tormentor threw it against. As its terrified owner no longer wanted it, Mendel kept and wore it for the rest of his time in the camp. His act of defiance stands as a testament to Jewish heroism and perseverance.
What this exhibit does, and does better than previous ones in less space, is portray through more than a thousand posters, photographs, paintings, artifacts and video interviews of eyewitnesses the ways in which the Third Reich came into and maintained power for a dozen years—the most terrible and gruesome 12 years in history that were thoroughly recorded and documented by the mass murderers themselves—before it was crushed.
And here is my only criticism of the exhibit: It does not contain documentation of the defeat of the foe. Too many visitors will leave without knowing the end of the story. It’s the story of the Allied victory and the inglorious defeat of the self-styled master race.
In all fairness, it was never the exhibit’s intent, although the opening in New York was scheduled for May 8, V-E Day, to commemorate the 74th anniversary of the Allied liberation of Europe. Given the global rise of anti-Semitism, especially among the young and the ignorant who don’t know the story of the bullies, who faced with defeat turned out to be cowards, this is a crucial aspect that calls for more attention. However, that is a complex history worthy of its own exhibition. Since it’s opening a little over two decades ago, MOJH has curated and mounted some of the most stunning exhibits in the world. No doubt that if it creates an exhibit on this important facet of the war against the Jews and humanity, it will be exemplary.
The exhibition, one of the most visited exhibits in Europe, was first shown in Madrid, where it’s run was twice extended. It will be on display through next January in New York City. Located in Battery Park, MOJH has a most spectacular view of the Hudson River, Ellis Island and Statue of Liberty. It’s between the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian and the 9/11 Museum on the site of the rebuilt Twin Towers. A day spent visiting this downtown museum mile would be an unforgettable and inspiring day.
By Barbara Wind
