News
'Auschwitz. Not Long Ago. Not Far Away' in Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California from March 2023
The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California's Simi Valley will be the next location of the exhibition 'Auschwitz. Not Long Ago. Not Far Away' created by the Museum and the Spanish company Musealia. It is scheduled to open at the end of March 2023. Until January 2023, the exhibition can be seen in Malmö, Sweden.
A Model 2 freight car used during deportations of Jews to ghettos and extermination centers in German-occupied Poland was installed on 10 November in the museum’s main courtyard. Upon the freight car’s arrival, two Auschwitz survivors, David Lenga and Joe Alexander, provided heartfelt remarks during the unveiling.
“We all owe it to the Holocaust victims - both those who lost their lives and those who were fortunate to survive - to show our respect,” said Auschwitz Survivor David Lenga. “We must remember them with dignity and gratitude and recognize the horror they endured. Survivors like myself need to know that our lives have meaning and that our community deeply cares about what becomes of us— that our suffering will never be forgotten.”
The event took place today on the anniversary of the November Pogrom (Kristallnacht) in Nazi Germany in 1938. Over a thousand synagogues and more than seven thousand Jewish shops, workshops or factories were destroyed. Around 30,000 men were imprisoned in concentration camps.
“To echo the sentiment of Ronald Reagan’s remarks at the opening of the Washington, D.C. Holocaust Museum in 1988, this exhibition commemorates not only the immense loss during one of the darkest chapters in history, but also the necessary effort to keep the memory of the millions lost alive,” said John Heubusch, Executive Director of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute. “I encourage everyone to see the Auschwitz exhibition and learn firsthand from some never-before-seen artifacts. We must ensure that such evil is never repeated.”
„Auschwitz. Not Long Ago. Not Far Away” depicts the successive stages of the development of Nazi ideology and describes the transformation of Oświęcim, an ordinary Polish town where Nazi Germany established the largest concentration camp and extermination centre during the occupation, where approximately one million Jews and tens of thousands of people of other nationalities were murdered.
The victims of Auschwitz also included Poles, Roma and Sinti, Soviet prisoners of war and other groups persecuted by Nazi ideology, such as people with disabilities, asocials, Jehovah's Witnesses and homosexuals. Furthermore, the exhibition includes objects portraying the world of the perpetrators - the SS men who created and managed this largest German Nazi concentration and extermination camp.
According to the director of the Auschwitz Museum, Dr. Piotr M. A. Cywiński, this exhibition is now taking on special significance: “Russia's barbaric invasion of sovereign Ukraine clearly shows how much the world needs historical memory to be a lasting and clear warning. Auschwitz was a far too painful experience, so the free world today could tolerate any symptoms of a policy of hatred, aggression, and dehumanization. Remembrance must be the key to building a peaceful and just world. This exhibition will help us shape this remembrance.”
“At the heart of this project is the idea of making accessible, to audiences all over the world, the history of Auschwitz in all its enormous complexity. Visitors will encounter Auschwitz as the site where one of the largest mass murder in history took place; but also as a symbol and manifestation of the limitless borders of human barbarism,” said Luis Ferreiro, Director of Musealia. “The exhibition will become a powerful opportunity for West Coast residents and visitors to understand how such a place could come to exist, and what that means for us today.”
The exhibition "Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away." was created in collaboration between Musealia and the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. The curators of this unique exhibition are international experts: Dr. Robert Jan van Pelt, Dr. Michael Berenbaum, and Dr. Paul Salmons, who worked closely with historians and curators from the Auschwitz Museum Research Centre headed by Dr. Piotr Setkiewicz.
“Concentration camp operations forever shifted the foundations and perspective of humanity, and this Auschwitz exhibit ingrains in us that sinister period of time through the preservation and collection of what remains. History, especially its darkest moments, must be remembered and learned from,” said John Norman, President of World Heritage Exhibitions, who is presenting the exhibition locally. “Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away. is one of the most remarkable exhibitions to ever travel the globe, and it is a true honor to present the exhibition at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. We encourage patrons from across the region, and the world, to make it a point to come and see this awe-inspiring display.”
On 12,500 sq. ft. exhibition space, the visitors will see several hundred items, mainly from the Auschwitz Memorial Collection. These include personal items belonging to the victims, such as suitcases, glasses and shoes. The exhibition will also include concrete posts forming part of the Auschwitz camp fence; fragments of the original barrack for prisoners in Auschwitz III-Monowitz; a desk and other items belonging to Rudolf Höss, the first and longest-serving commandant of Auschwitz; a gas mask used by the SS; and a lithograph depicting a prisoner's face by Pablo Picasso.
Additionally, the exhibition features individual objects on loan from more than 20 institutions, museums, and private collections worldwide, including Yad Vashem, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Wiener Library, and the Buchenwald Mauthausen and Sachsenhausen and Westerbork memorial sites.
“Concentration camp operations forever shifted the foundations and perspective of humanity, and this Auschwitz exhibit ingrains in us that sinister period of time through the preservation and collection of what remains. History, especially its darkest moments, must be remembered and learned from,” said John Norman, President of World Heritage Exhibitions, who is presenting the exhibition locally. “Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away. is one of the most remarkable exhibitions to ever travel the globe, and it is a true honor to present the exhibition at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. We encourage patrons from across the region, and the world, to make it a point to come and see this awe-inspiring display.”
Previously, the exhibition "Auschwitz. Not so long ago. Not so far away." was presented be seen in Madrid, New York and Kansas City.
More information and tickets: www.ReaganLibrary.com/Auschwitz.