The opening ceremony was attended by the Swedish culture minister, Jeanette Gustafsdotter, the president of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, Ann Bernes, and representatives from the Auschwitz Museum in Poland and Spanish company Musealia, the co-organisers of the event.
The exhibition explores the dual identity of Auschwitz as a physical location—the largest documented mass murder site in human history—and as a symbol of the borderless manifestation of hatred and human barbarity.
On display are more than 700 original objects and 400 photographs, including hundreds of personal items, such as suitcases, eyeglasses and shoes, that belonged to survivors and victims of Auschwitz.
Other artifacts include concrete posts that were part of the fence of the Auschwitz camp; fragments of an original barrack for prisoners; a desk and other possessions of the first and the longest serving Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss; a gas mask used by Adolf Hitler's elite SS security force; and an original German-made freight train car used for the deportation of Jews to the ghettos and extermination camps in occupied Poland.
Gustafsdotter described the exhibition as “deeply moving, … one that cannot be forgotten,” adding that “it will surely be an important experience for every visitor, particularly for thousands of school students.”
She recalled the war experience of her father, saying: “In 1943, when the German government decided to carry out a deportation of Danish Jews, a rescue operation began. My father and many other people transported Jews in fishing boats through the Strait of the Sound to a safe haven in Sweden.”
The director of the Auschwitz Museum, Piotr M. A. Cywiński, said that the exhibition shows the history of the Nazi German concentration camp "in a broad context, helping to understand, particularly for the young generation, not only the mechanisms that had led to the tragedy of Auschwitz more than eight decades ago, but also to ponder its present-day message – the many references of Auschwitz to current tragedies and dramas."
Cywiński added that "in today’s world, with the return of the cruel war scenes in Europe, in which Russia invaded innocent Ukraine and in which we witness manifestations of racism, anti-Semitism and hatred, Auschwitz has to remain an eloquent sign of warning.”
The Auschwitz. Not so long ago. Not so far away exhibition had earlier been shown in Madrid, New York and Kansas City, attracting over 1 million visitors.
(mk/gs)