‘Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away’ opens at Union Terminal Oct. 18
World War II ended 80 years ago.
But the attitudes and actions that created the Nazi concentration camps of World War II and led to the murder of 6 million Jews are not necessarily “long ago and far away.”
That’s why organizers named the exhibit that will open at the Cincinnati Museum Center on October 18. “Auschwitz. A little while ago. Not far away.”
The exhibition, comprising 500 objects and 400 photographs, will raise a frequently asked question about the Holocaust: Did the world know what was happening, and if so, why didn’t the world do more to stop it?
Pawel Sawicki, one of the staff in Poland, said this would also raise a new question. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museumprovides most of the works in the exhibition.
“In the future, people will ask the same question about us,” he said. “ ‘Did they know of different places in the world where inhumane ideologies were poisoning people’s minds?’ And ‘Why didn’t they do more?’ ”
The Cincinnati Museum Center and the Nancy & David Wolf Center for Holocaust and Humanity “opened Auschwitz. Not too long ago. Not too far away.” On October 18th. The exhibition includes more than 500 works and 400 photographs. The items will include artifacts from hundreds of people who died and survived in the concentration camp.
Global history on display in Cincinnati
Museum Center President and CEO Elizabeth Pierce He said the Queensgate-based institution is proud to “bring the world to Cincinnati” with its shows.
When he learned about the Auschwitz exhibit, “I was adamant that we had to advocate for Cincinnati to be a venue for the exhibit.”
That’s because Cincinnati has welcomed concentration camp survivors through Union Terminal, the museum’s home since 1990, and because Holocaust survivors are members of Cincinnati’s Jewish community. Cincinnati and Union Terminal as well Nancy and David Wolf Holocaust and Humanity CenterIt was created in 2000 to tell the story of the Holocaust and inspire action based on the lessons learned from that story.
“This is an unprecedented opportunity for the work we do in Cincinnati to localize, humanize and personalize a very global history, to be able to reach a much broader regional audience,” he added. Jackie CongedoHolocaust Center CEO.
Cincinnati will be the eighth stop of the traveling exhibit. It launched in Madrid in December 2017 before moving to New York City; Kansas City, Missouri; Malmo, Sweden; Simi Valley, California; Boston; and Toronto.
The stories of local Holocaust victims will be represented in a new exhibit at the Cincinnati Museum Center, said Jackie Congedo, CEO of the Nancy & David Wolf Center for Holocaust and Humanity.
Cincinnati survivors involved ‘every step of the way’
Voice of Auschwitz survivor Werner CoppelThe artist, who passed away in Cincinnati in 2016, will greet visitors at the exhibition.
Born in Moers, Germany, in 1925, Coppel escaped from the camp in January 1945. Arriving at Union Terminal in 1949 “with a wife, a suitcase, and a baby,” he would later say, marked the end of “the first chapter of my life.” The next episode featured starting a food business, raising two boys, and after reading the Enquirer’s letter to the editor saying “The Diary of Anne Frank” was a fake and sharing the Holocaust story.
Coppel’s bag will also be among the works in the museum exhibition.
The exhibition will also feature the stories of other locals and survivors: Bella Ouizel, Doris Polaniecki, Joseph Polaniecki, Edith Carter, Henry Carter, Henry Meyer and Roma Kaltman.
“You will hear and see local people every step of the way,” Congedo said.
He added that stories of local survivors who “tread carefully” in the face of so many witnesses to the Holocaust could inspire museum-goers to speak out about the wrongs being committed today.
New exhibit at the Cincinnati Museum Center – “Auschwitz. Not so long ago. Not too far away.” — Contains 500 items and 400 photos.
Clothes, shoes and a Picasso painting
The Polish government established the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum on land that once housed the Nazi camp. The museum, which has more than 2 million visitors a year, tells the story of Auschwitz as staff continue to investigate the events.
Among the works to be exhibited in Cincinnati are personal belongings of survivors and Auschwitz victims (among them clothes, shoes, glasses and dolls), fragments of the Auschwitz fence and prisoner barracks, and Spanish painter Pablo Picasso’s 1955 “Head of an Auschwitz Prisoner.”
The exhibition at the museum center will continue until April 12 tickets are $37.50 or less. Pierce said ticket sales have been strong and slots for school groups have been filled.
This article first appeared in the Cincinnati Enquirer: When does the Auschwitz exhibition open in Cincinnati?
