Auschwitz Press Kit by Union Station Kansas City

PRESS KIT

Union Station Kansas City 06.14.21 - 01.23.22 An Exhibition By

auschwitz.net

Presented By

Supported By

Hosted By

UnionStation.org

“COME TO ME, you, the citizens of the free world, you whose existence and security are guaranteed by human decency and the law, and I will tell you how the modern criminals and vile murderers have crushed the decency of life and defaced the laws of existence.” Zalman Gradowski, inmate who died in Auschwitz and was assigned to the Sonderkommando, the Special Squad put to work in the crematoria. Months before beginning the revolt that blew up Crematorium IV (October 1944), Gradowski wrote a secret diary he buried near the gas chamber to bear witness to the genocide in the camp for future generations. He was killed by the SS men during the uprising. His message will live forever.

Contents Introduction The Exhibition About Musealia The Project Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum Historians Team Some Outstanding Exhibits Rooms Cooperating Institutions Union Station Kansas City Practical Information History of Auschwitz Credits and Acknowledgments

Introduction

Union Station will be the second & last stop in its North American tour, more than 700 original objects and many unpublished photographic and audiovisual materials.

More than 70 years after its liberation, Auschwitz is still today a symbol of the Holocaust, one of the darkest chapters of recent History, in which Hitler’s Nazi Germany killed 6,000,000 innocents. Now, the first travelling exhibition on Auschwitz and its historical and human consequences is touring the world to show its complex reality to millions of people and elucidate, during a highly moving intellectual trip, how such a place could come into being and how its existence determines our worldview even in the present.

Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away. has been created by Musealia, the Spanish large scale exhibition creator and producer firm, in cooperation with the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and more than twenty other renowned international institutions, private collectors and even Shoah survivors. The historical rigour of each object in the exhibition is certified by a multidisciplinary team of international experts and researchers designated by Musealia and headed by the historian Dr Robert Jan Van Pelt and the research team from the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, led by Dr Piotr Setkiewicz. The Auschwitz exhibition will be at Union Station Kansas City from June 14, 2021 to Mid-January 2022.

About Musealia

As the creator, manager and producer of the Auschwitz exhibition in collaboration with the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Musealia and its team have the honour of having brought into being the first touring exhibition on the largest German Nazi concentration and death camp.

Musealia is an independent Spanish company dedicated to creating and managing traveling exhibitions that raise awareness and inspire about our past, present and future. With more than 20 years of international experience, we have always been committed to creating exhibitions that contribute to the knowledge of the human being and its history through the conception of global experiences, which go beyond the visit itself.

At Musealia we strive every day to achieve the highest standards of excellence in narrative, historical rigor, educational value and emotional impact, key elements when creating and presenting our exhibitions to a global audience. More than 70 museums and institutions in countries all over the world such as the United States, Mexico, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Portugal, Estonia, Poland or, among others, Spain have hosted our creations.

The Project

After the team was gathered and the core The story of the exhibition began on April of the narrative of the exhibition had been 2009 after Luis Ferreiro, Musealia’s director, stablished, conversations began with the received as a birthday gift the book Man’s Auschwitz- Birkenau State Museum about Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl. A Musealia’s idea and the project itself. few months earlier, his brother Jesús had died suddenly at the age of 25. Discussions that, over the years, resulted in a much more extensive agreement than Frankl’s personal crossroads, his profound initially planned, transforming the exhibition and sincere pain at the situation he was into a co-production and an unprecedented going through, prompted Ferreiro to collaboration that led Musealia to lead reflex on the idea of creating a traveling a project that would gather, for the first exhibition about the history of Auschwitz. time in history, the support of 20 leading It was a necessity born out of discovering institutions and private collections from something that needed to be shared with around the world to create the first as many people as possible, and to express traveling exhibition on Auschwitz. it in the only way he felt Musealia could: in an exhibition. An extensive work, involving the creation of the narrative, architecture, museography, With the constant and decisive support of design of educational and graphic José Antonio Múgica and María Teresa materials, conservation of collections and Aguirre, the producers of the project in much more, which Musealia is proud Musealia, experts dotted all round the to present in Kansas City thanks to the world were united to work under the collaboration of our host Union Station guidance and leadership of Ferreiro to join Kansas City, and the support of Bank Musealia’s team in this project that took 7 of America and the Midwest Center for years to develop. Holocaust Education.

Luis Ferreiro Director of The Exhibition

Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum

The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum is a public museum located in the Polish town of Oświęcim, consecrated to the memory of the victims of this Nazi concentration, forced labour and extermination camp, as well as to the preservation of the very place (Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau) and the historical objects it contains. Despite having lent exhibits to other museums and institutions before, it had never carried on such a substantial collaboration, both for its scale and for its historic relevance, as now, lending more than 400 unique objects to an international travelling exhibition.

Created by the Government of Poland in 1947, the Museum comprises 191 hectares and was declared a Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 1979. In 2016, it beat its own record when 2 million people visited the complex. Today, Auschwitz is still the largest cemetery in the world. And now, as its last survivors and perpetrators are disappearing, the spreading of its legacy has become more important than ever.

Historians Team The content of the Auschwitz exhibition has been developed by a multidisciplinary team of international experts on the history of the Holocaust and its teaching, gathered by Musealia to devise the largest travelling exhibition ever devoted to Auschwitz, and the team from the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, including:

Dr Robert Jan van Pelt Chief Curator Dr Robert Jan van Pelt is internationally known as one of the main authorities on the history of Auschwitz. In 1997-98, he presided over the team that developed the master plan to preserve the Auschwitz camp and participated as an expert witness in the famous case against the British historian and author David Irving (London, 1998-2001), Holocaust denier. Van Pelt, born in Harleem (Netherlands), has published several books on the camp, some of the most remarkable being the internationally award-winning Auschwitz, 1270 to the Present (1996) and The Case for Auschwitz (2002). Throughout his career, he has served as a historical advisor on films such as the TV documentary Auschwitz: The Nazis and ‘The Final Solution’ (2005) by Laurence Rees, and has been a co-curator of successful exhibitions as The Evidence Room, displayed at the Venice Biennale in 2016.

Dr Michael Berenbaum

Paul Salmons

Curator

Dr Michael Berenbaum is an American author, professor, rabbi and advisor on the conceptual design of museums and historical films. Besides, he is the Director of the Sigi Ziering Institute, at the American Jewish University, and a Professor of Jewish Studies at the American Jewish University (Los Angeles).

Paul Salmons is consultant to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Chief Curator of ‘Seeing Auschwitz’, an exhibition by Musealia for the United Nations and UNESCO. Being an independent curator and educator specialising in difficult histories, Salmons helped create the United Kingdom’s national Holocaust Exhibition at the Imperial War Museum; co-founded the Centre for Holocaust Education at University College London; and played a leading role in the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, an inter-governmental body of more than 30 states.

In 1979, he was designated Deputy Director of the President’s Commission on the Holocaust under President Jimmy Carter. In 1988-93, he directed the executive project for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), whose Holocaust Research Institute he presided over afterwards. He has also acted (1997-99) as a President and CEO of the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation (today USC Shoah Foundation), devoted to filming and cataloguing testimonies by Holocaust survivors in 57 countries and 32 languages. This institution was created by film director Steven Spielberg after the making of The Schindler’s List. Berenbaum has authored and edited a score of books, among which Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp (1994, with Israel Gutman) is noteworthy. Some film projects in which he has participated have won Academy and Emmy Awards.

Currently developing new exhibitions, pedagogies and educational resources for partners in the UK, Europe and North America.

Historians and Researchers Team from the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum Led by the Chief Historian of the Museum, Dr Piotr Setkiewicz, the Museum’s Research Centre performs academic research on the concentration camp’s history and has published its results in several books and articles. Among the many books by the department it is worth mentioning the five-volumes monograph on the history of Auschwitz, which makes a basic compendium on all the available knowledge on the subject.

Some Outstanding Exhibits Small personal belongings from some of the victims, structural elements from that huge camp, unpublished audio-visual materials and documents, etc. A rigorous and moving tour through more than 21 exhibition rooms. An unforgettable reflection on the very nature of the human being and the complex reality of Auschwitz, the universe shared by victims and perpetrators.

Freight wagon used by the German National Railway (Deutsche Reichsbahn). Collection of Musealia

Blanket used on the death march from Auschwitz. Collection of the Holocaust Center for Humanity

Inmate’s suitcase. Collection of Miroslav Ganobis

Original barrack from the Auschwitz III-Monowitz satellite camp. Collection of Musealia

Prisoners’ correspondence. Collection of the Florence & Laurence Spungen Family Foundation

Concrete posts from Auschwitz. Collection of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum

Full prison uniforms. Collection of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum

Operating table used by Dr Mengele’s team. Collection of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum

Handmade Doll (1942–44) Collection of the Auschwitz - Birkenau State Museum.

14 09

06 13

BEFORE AUSCHWITZ THE ENCOUNTER

BEFORE AUSCHWITZ AUSCHWITZ

AFTER AUSCHWITZ AUSCHWITZ

04. Coexistence 01. A Dot on the Map 05. The Great War andWheel its Aftermath 02. The Set and the Shoe 06. The Third Reich 03. January 27th, 1945 07. The Invasion, Occupation and Germanization of Poland

Coexistencecamp in Auschwitz 08. A German04. Concentration 05. The Great War and its Aftermath 09. The Invasion of the USSR 06. The Third Reich and the Beginning of the Holocaust 07. The Invasion, Occupation 10. Deportations and Germanization of Poland 11. In Hiding 12. The Rampe 13. This Dot on the Map 14. The Factory of Death 15. Kanada 16. Life in the Camp 17. Resistance – Persistance 18. The Death March 19. Liberation

20. The Survivors 08. A German Concentration camp in Auschwitz 21. The World that 09. The is Lost Invasion of the USSR and the Beginning of the Holocaust 10. Deportations 11. In Hiding 12. The Rampe 13. This Dot on the Map 14. The Factory of Death 15. Kanada 16. Life in the Camp 17. Resistance – Persistance 18. The Death March 19. Liberation

02 07

Shoe

0510

17 14 16 08

0510

AFTER AUSCHWITZ

AFTER AUSCHWITZ AUSCHWITZ

AFTER AUSCHWITZ

Coexistence camp in Auschwitz 08. A German04. Concentration 05. The Great War and its Aftermath 09. The Invasion of the USSR 06. The Third Reich and the Beginning of the Holocaust 07. The Invasion, Occupation 10. Deportations and Germanization of Poland 11. In Hiding 12. The Rampe 13. This Dot on the Map 14. The Factory of Death 15. Kanada 16. Life in the Camp 17. Resistance – Persistance 18. The Death March 19. Liberation

20. The Survivors 08. A German Concentration camp in Auschwitz Invasion of the USSR 21. The World 09. thatThe is Lost and the Beginning of the Holocaust 10. Deportations 11. In Hiding 12. The Rampe 13. This Dot on the Map 14. The Factory of Death 15. Kanada 16. Life in the Camp 17. Resistance – Persistance 18. The Death March 19. Liberation

20. The Survivors 21. The World that is Lost

So, the visitor is presented with a step-by-step, chronological tour through 21 rooms, an introspective trip on the very nature of the human being by means of the dual history of the camp,

both as a place and physical space, and as a symbol and metaphor for the boundaries of human cruelty. This tour is made in the company of a free audio guide device that, for about 2 - 3 hours, will immerse the visitors in a truly emotional narration and guide them through the most important of the exhibits and objects that are shown in almost one hundred displays.

20. The Survivors 21. The World that is Lost

BEFORE AUSCHWITZ AUSCHWITZ

The exhibition is conceived as an essentially narrative project with the ultimate goal to cast light on one of the darkest chapters in the History of Humankind.

20. The Survivors 21. The World that is Lost

02 07

AFTER AUSCHWITZ

Exit

08. A German Concentration camp in Auschwitz 09. The Invasion of the USSR and the Beginning of the Holocaust 10. Deportations 11. In Hiding 12. The Rampe 13. This Dot on the Map 14. The Factory of Death 15. Kanada 16. Life in the Camp 17. Resistance – Persistance 18. The Death March 19. Liberation

16 21

AUSCHWITZ

04. Coexistence 05. The Great War and its Aftermath 06. The Third Reich 07. The Invasion, Occupation and Germanization of Poland

BEFORE AUSCHWITZ

Entrance

01. A Dot on the Map 02. The Wheel Set and the Shoe 03. January 27th, 1945

THE ENCOUNTER

Rooms

Collaborating institutions

Musealia

San Sebastián (Spain) Musealia is the Spanish company that created the Auschwitz exhibition. As such, it has contributed a vast collection of objects to it, some as noteworthy as the barrack from Auschwitz-Monowitz or the same wagon model as the ones used to transport prisoners to Auschwitz, never before shown and subjected to a long process of restauration.

Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum

Yad Vashem

Auschwitz – Jewish Center

Oświęcim (Poland)

Jerusalem (Israel)

Oświęcim (Poland)

The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum manages and keeps from 1947 the legacy and remains of the old Nazi Germany’s Auschwitz concentration camp, besides educating and investigating on the history of Auschwitz and the Holocaust. As a co-producer of this exhibition, it has lent more than 400 original objects to be shown worldwide.

Created in 1953 by the Israeli Government, Yad Vashem is devoted to commemorating, documenting, researching and educate on the Holocaust. Yad Vashem Campus consists on a complex of museums, the International School for Holocaust Studies, the International Institute for Holocaust Research and the Yad Vashem Archives and Libraries.

The AJC is the only Jewish presence in Oświęcim, the town known as Auschwitz during World War II. Its premises include today the Jewish Museum, the Chevra Lomdei Mishnayot Synagogue, the Education Center and the Café Bergson.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

The Wiener Library

Holocaust Center For Humanity

Washington, D.C. (US)

London (UK)

Seattle (US)

The USHMM is the ‘USA official institution’ to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust. Its work is centred on encouraging the overcoming of hatred, preventing future genocides, promoting human dignity and strengthen democracy. It has welcomed more than 30 million visitors since its establishment.

The Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide is the world’s oldest institution (1933) devoted to the study of the Holocaust, its causes and legacy.

The Holocaust Center for Humanity in Seattle works since 1989 to inspire students of all ages to fight against intolerance and indifference, promote human dignity and act in its name. This non-profit organization has lent to the Auschwitz exhibition one of the most iconic among the original objects in its collection.

Hartheim Castle Education and Memorial Centre

Gedenkstätte un Museum Sachsenhausen

Jewish Museum London

Alkoven (Austria)

Oranienburg (Germany)

London (UK)

Memorial centre in homage to the victims of the Aktion T4 ‘euthanasia’ program developed at Hartheim Castle. Its goal is to turn the castle, where more than 180,000 people (500 of them from Spain) were killed, in a place to learn and reflect on human rights, bioethics and medicine.

This museum belongs to the Brandeburg Memorials Foundation and is settled in the old site of Sachsenhausen prisoners camp to pay tribute to its countless victims. More than 200,000 Europeans were confined there between 1936 and 1945. Thousands did not survive.

Devoted to the history and heritage of the Jews in the United Kingdom through universal issues such as migration, family, faith and culture, each year it attracts thousands of visitors of all ages, origins and beliefs through its own critically-acclaimed exhibitions and learning programs that have won awards in several areas.

Collaborating institutions

Private Collections

Herinneringscentrum Kamp Westerbork

Anne Frank House

Robert Jan Van Pelt

Hooghalen (Netherlands)

Sonja de Wind-Klijn

Amsterdam (The Netherlands)

Toronto (Canada)

Amsterdam (Netherlands)

The Memorial Centre is located in Westerbork transit camp and commemorates the Jews and Roma deported to it on their way to the concentration and death camps in the occupied Poland. Anne Frank and her family were interned in Westerbork in the Summer 1944.

Independent organisation that manages the place where Anne Frank was in hiding during the Second World War, and where she wrote her diary. It increases global awareness of her life story, encouraging people to reflect on the dangers of antisemitism, racism, and discrimination, and the importance of freedom, equal rights, and democracy

Ruth-Anne Lenga

The Florence And Laurence Spungen Family Foundation

Montreal Holocaust Museum

Museum of Jewish Heritage

Montreal (Canada)

New York (US)

The goal of the Holocaust Museum in Montreal is to educate audiences of all ages on the Holocaust and make them aware of the universal dangers of anti-Semitism, racism, hatred and indifference. Through its activities, it promotes respect for diversity and human life.

The Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust is New York’s contribution to the global responsibility to never forget. The Museum is committed to the mission of educating visitors about Jewish life before, during, and after the Holocaust.

Amud Aish Memorial Museum New York (US) Living memorial to all the victims of the Holocaust. They seek to present the victim experience, with emphasis on the perspectives of observant Jewish communities and focus on the role of faith and identity within the broader context of the annihilation of European Jewry.

London (UK)

Miroslaw Ganobis Oświęcim (Poland)

Toronto (Canada)

Shirley Kopolovic and Mark Levine Toronto (Canada)

Judith Tydor Baumel-Schwartz Ramat-Gan (Israel)

Union Station Kansas City

Union Station Kansas City - a 501(c)3 non-profit organization - is a 106-yearold historical landmark and celebrated civic asset renovated and reopened to the public in 1999. Recently awarded “Favorite Attraction”, “Favorite Family-Friendly Attraction”, “Favorite Historic Attraction” and “Best of KC”, the organization -- dedicated to preserving its historic monument and its stories, inspiring lifelong learning and creating lasting memories for our community -- is home to Kansas City’s internationallyawarded Science City – Powered by Burns & McDonnell; the new Arvin Gottlieb Planetarium; the Regnier Extreme Screen Theatre; the popular Model Railroad

Experience; City Stage featuring live theater, and a selection of unique shops and restaurants. Union Station is also home to prominent area civic organizations and businesses, and regularly hosts world-class touring exhibitions. Awarded “Top Banquet Facilities in KC” by KC Business Journal, the facility annually hosts hundreds of community events and private celebrations of all sizes. Visit UnionStation.org for details.

Practical Information General Information Tel.: 816.460.2020 E-mail for general information and reservations: Visitor@UnionStation.org www.UnionStation.org

Admission Hours Monday to Sunday: 10 am - 6 pm Last entrance and ticket office sold: 4 pm See UnionStation.org for complete and up-to-date hours.

Tickets Sale Pre-purchased Tickets Recommended to Ensure Availability.

Admission Fees Audio guide included. TICKETS TYPE

PRICE

Union Station Members

$15*

Adults

$23.50*

· At the ticket office of the Union Station 30 W Pershing Rd. Kansas City, MO 64108 · On the Internet: tickets.UnionStation.org · By Phone: (816) 262.1559

Students (Ages 3-22)

$17.50*

Senior (Ages 55+)

$19*

Services

Group Admission

$15*

· Audio Guide (Spanish and English)

Press Contact Michael Tritt mtritt@unionstation.org 913.219.6890

*$1.50 fee is added to each ticket to ensure the ongoing preservation of Union Station.

History of Auschwitz

Hitler and the Nazi Party The National Socialist German Workers’ Party, better known as Nazi Party, was founded in 1919 and shaped the far-right wing’s racist theories that had been winning followers in Germany and other European countries with special vigour since the last decades of the 19th century. The fundamentals of its ideology were its opposition to Communism and democracy and hatred to the Jews, as well as its defence of social Darwinism and the alleged superiority of the ‘Aryan’ race, that, in its opinion, was to rule the world. At the beginning of the 1930’s, the climate in German was critical. The Crash of 1929 and the resulting world economic depression had crippled the country and plunged its population in poverty and in unemployment rates that were difficult to sustain. This, added to the humiliating German defeat in World War I and the punishment imposed in the Treaty of Versailles, created the circumstances that allowed the Nazi Party to win the elections in January 1933. Its leader, Adolf Hitler, did not hesitate to present himself before his electorate as the saviour of the German nation’s destiny. Tens of thousands of followers supported him with their votes, believing in his promise to restore the former greatness of Germany and his accusation that certain minorities, and particularly the Jews, were responsible for the nation’s misfortunes. This is how anti-Semitism became definitely institutionalized and the rights of a vast portion of the population began to be severed. The authorities set up Anti-Semitic boycotts and book burnings, and gradually enacted anti-Jewish laws conceived to make a portion of the German citizenship poorer and poorer, and more and more segregated. Ultimately, and after a cruel escalation of anti-Semitic violence, this hatred would lead to the state-sponsored systematic murder of more than six million people deemed ‘enemies’ of the German nation—Jews, Slavs, Roma and other groups such as homosexuals, Soviet prisoners of war, disabled or, among others, Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Being a Jew In 1919, Hitler defined Jews as a racial group. So, to the Nazis, even those Christians who had Jewish grandparents must be considered ‘subhumans’. This was an utter misconception. Being a Jew is not equal to belonging to a race, because Jews do not share genetic or biological traits that set them apart from the rest of individuals. Their only common link is their cultural, historical and religious tradition. Therefore, there are Jewish from all the races, as can be said of Christians, Budists, etc. Being a Jew is not a nationality either, as it is often believed, since this would imply that only those born in the State of Israel could be considered as Jewish, and, of course, there are Jews from all the nations. Therefore, to be a Jew it is not necessary to be born a Jew. Being a Jew is a personal choice and is in no event determined by ethnic origin, nationality, physiognomy, language or other physical or intellectual criteria.

History of Auschwitz

Creation of Auschwitz Nazi concentration camps began to be built in Germany in 1933. From then on, they became the unswerving destination for the opponents to Hitler’s regime, the Jews and every other person deemed by Nazi soldiers as an ‘undesirable element’ (for such disparate reasons as listening to a forbidden radio station or being a communist), first gradually and then increasingly often. After World War II was declared, Germany began to install these camps in its occupied territories throughout Europe and ordered, at the same time, the deportation of prisoners from other lands. Auschwitz was the most lethal (1,1 million people were murdered there) of the thousands of camps built and operated by Nazi Germany and its collaborators. The compound was also the largest of all. The forty square kilometres of its zone of interest were home to the three main elements that made up the Nazi camps system: - A part called Auschwitz I, built in May 1940.

Auschwitz II - Birkenau Its building began in Autumn 1941. It was divided in more than twelve different sections and was one of the key compounds of the German project to annihilate the Jews from Europe. Located 3 kilometres from Oświęcim, in the small village of Brzezinka (Birkenau), in May 1944 it held 90,000 prisoners at any given time, crammed in more than 300 barracks. Birkenau was home to the greatest part of the machinery of mass extermination: most of its victims died in its gas chambers.

- Camp Auschwitz II-Birkenau, created in Autumn 1941. - Camp Auschwitz III-Monowitz, active since October 1942. In addition to these, almost fifty other satellite camps and external compounds to exploit the prisoners as slaves were established in 1942-44 near Auschwitz.

Auschwitz l It was built in May 1940 from some old barracks abandoned by the Polish Army artillery in the outskirts of the town of Oświęcim, annexed by the Third Reich after the occupation of Poland. It was expanded progressively to meet the needs of the SS. The original plan was to create a camp to hold about 30,000 Polish prisoners. The first transport of political prisoners took place on June 14, 1940. Although it was conceived as a concentration camp, prisoners were also subjected to forced labour and tortured and exterminated on a daily basis.

Auschwitz III - Monowitz It was active since October 1942. Also known as Buna, it was conceived as a labour camp for the IG Farben Buna plant in Monowitz. It functioned also in practise as a concentration camp and as a death camp, as the factory managers ordered the periodic replacement of the workers weakened by hunger and exhaustion, who would be sent straightforward to the gas chambers. The burning capacity of the crematoria in Birkenau was more than 4,000 people a day, as the Topf and Soehne company files attest. The killing method in the gas chambers was the release of a gas contained in the Zyklon B pest-killer. During its most frenzied periods, in the Spring of 1944, the number of murdered reached 10,000 a day. Its location, 60 kilometres West of Kraków, Poland, in an area surrounded by forests and marshes that was also an important railway hub was by no means a coincidence. No single element in the Nazi extermination machinery was.

History of Auschwitz

The victims The main groups of Auschwitz victims were Jews, Polish, Roma and prisoners of war, both Soviet and of other nationalities (Czech, Belorussian, French, German, Austrian, Russian, Slovenian and Ukranian, for the most part), and people from other groups deemed as ‘undesirable’ by Hitler’s regime, as homosexuals. Of the 1,3 million deported sent to Auschwitz, barely 400,000 were registered and imprisoned in the compound. The other 900,000 were killed within hours after their train’s arrival.

The selection and extermination process was perfectly planned and organized to maximize its efficiency and celerity. The victims got off the train and their baggage was piled on the platform to be subsequently sorted and sent to Germany. People were forced to form two rows, one for women and one for men, so the SS doctors could carry out a selection based on their external appearance.

NUMBER OF DEPORTEES

NUMBER OF REGISTERED

NUMBER OF MURDERED

Jews

1.100.000

200.000

1.000.000

Polish

140.000 - 150.000

140.000

70.000 - 75.000

Roma

23.000

21.000

Soviet Prisoners of War

15.000

12.000

14.000

Criminals, Jehovah’s, Witnesses, Homosexuals, etc.

25.000

10.000 - 15.000

1.300.000

400.000

1.100.000

GROUP OF VICTIMS

TOTAL

Chart by Franciszek Piper for the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.

This process, which brought about the immediate killing of the great majority of prisoners, did not take more than a few seconds. More than fifty percent of the people that passed de selection made by the SS men after arriving at Auschwitz died to starvation, exhausting work, execution or several kinds of torture, diseases and epidemics, pseudo-scientific experiments and the harsh conditions of the daily life in the camp.

When Germans were surrounded by the Soviet Army that liberated the compound, they transported almost all the remaining inmates to other camps in what became known as death marches. In the moment of Auschwitz liberation there were scarcely 7,000 people abandoned by the SS in the camp. Half of them would perish during the following days due to their dreadful state of health.

History of Auschwitz

Liberation of the camp At the end of 1944, the unstoppable offensive of the Red Army forced the Nazi authorities in Auschwitz to prepare to abandon the compound and order the destruction of all the evidence of the crimes they had perpetrated. After getting rid of all documentation and a great part of the camp facilities, on January 17-21, the prisoners still able to walk were forced to march towards the inner Reich and the few of them that did not perish on the journey were relocated to other camps. Even though, Soviet troops found at their arrival plenty of irrefutable evidences of the mass extermination carried on in Auschwitz, such as mountains of unburied bodies or the victims’ belongings—hundreds of thousands of men’s suits and women’s dresses and, among other things, 14,000 pounds of human hair ready to be sold in Germany.

Broken piece of china cup. Collección of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum

They also found almost 7,000 people, exhausted and sick, in the compound. Despite the efforts made by the Allied troops and doctors, more than a half of them would die within days of having been liberated.

Credits and Acknowledgments EXHIBITION PROJECT MUSEALIA, Spain, in collaboration with the AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU STATE MUSEUM, Poland.

MUSEALIA

AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU STATE MUSEUM

UNION STATION KANSAS CITY, INC.

PRODUCTION

DIRECTION

RESEARCH CENTER

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

REPLICAS

Piotr Setkiewicz (Historical Content Verification)

EXECUTIVE TEAM

ARCHITECTURAL MODELS

Luis Ferreiro

Laura Elvira Martínez

PRESIDENT & CEO

CHAIRMAN

Executive Team

George Guastello

Ramón Murguía

DIRECTOR

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT &

Piotr M.A. Cywinski

COO

University of Waterloo School of Architecture, Canada Anna Longrigg Bob Intini Madeleine Reinhardt Michael Nugent Piper Bernbaum Tom Nugent Tristan van Leur

C U R AT O R S T E A M

Robert Jan van Pelt Michael Berenbaum Miriam Greenbaum Paul Salmons Djamel Zeniti EXECUTIVE

José Antonio Múgica EXECUTIVE

María Teresa Aguirre TEAM

Icíar Palacios (Communications and Marketing Manager) Irene Pagalday (Communications and marketing) Ana Galán Pérez (Collections manager) Anna Maria Biedermann (Design and museography Manager) Javier Galán (Production Manager) Roberto Sancho (Site Technical Manager) Amaia Múgica (Accounts) Marisa Ruiz (Human resources)

Jerry Baber

DEPUTY DIRECTOR

Rafał Pióro S E N I O R M A N A G E R S I N V O LV E D W I T H T H E E X H I B I T I O N

Wojciech Płosa (Head Archives) Elzbieta Cajzer (Head Collections) Jolanta Banas-Maciaszczyk (Head Preservation) Aleksandra Papis (Head Conservation Laboratories) PRESS OFFICE

Bartosz Bartyzel (Spokesman) SPECIAL MUSEALIA LIAISON

Paweł Sawicki P R E PA R AT I O N A N D A D M I N I S T R AT I O N O F A R T I FA C T S F O R T H E E X H I B I T I O N

Agnieszka Sieradzka Andrzej Jastrzebiowski Marta Paszko

EXHIBITIONS

Duane Erickson (Director of Technical & Building Operations) Nick Cline (A/V Technical Manager) E X T E R N A L A F FA I R S

Christy Nitsche (Director of Advancement and Community Engagement) Michael Tritt (Chief Marketing Officer) Nale Uhl (Vice President Finance) COLLECTIONS

Denise Morrison (Director of Collections & Curatorial Services)

VICE CHAIRMAN

Ray Kowalik S E C R E TA R Y

Charles Sosland TREASURER

Peggy J. Dunn Dr. Kimberly Beatty Bucky Brooks Michael J. Brown Jon Cook Michael R. Haverty Dan Lowe Quinton Lucas Robert D. Regnier Dr. Thomas Sack Erin Stucky INTERNAL TEAM EXHIBITION CREW

Kylor Greene Rachel Grooms Mike Molloy

AUDIO-TOUR

Script: David McFetridge with Paul Salmons Music: Ludovico Einaudi Production concept : Musealia Devices and Technology: Imagineear, Ltd. Recording: REC Estudio FRAMES AND LIGHTBOXES

Printit BCN INSURANCE

Mapfre PRESS OFFICE

Bartosz Bartyzel (Spokesman) L E G A L M AT T E R S

MARKETING

Margaret Hoang Lauren Hypse-Kovarna Dalton Liu Ben Smith

Izaskun Porres Javier Tortuero - Uría Menéndez LIGHTING

Intervento PICTURE FRAMING AND WA L L E X H I B I T I O N E L E M E N T S

Marcos Cano

R E S T O R AT I O N A N D P R E S E R VAT I O N

Die Schmiede Julian Zawada Usługi Budowlane SHOWCASES

Frank Europe, GmbH I N T E R I O R D I S P L AY

Feltrero Musealia S O F T WA R E

WEGETIT TEXT EDITORS

Claire Crighton Amy Hughes David McFetridge T R A N S P O R TAT I O N

ArtTransit TTI Transportes Marshall Fine Arts The Shipping Monster VIDEOS FOR THE EXHIBITION

Winikur Productions Zoyda Art Production MorganCrea WEB DESIGN

Studio Itxaso Mezzacasa

“It happened. Therefore it can happen again: this is the core of what we have to say. It can happen, and it can happen everywhere.” Primo Levi, Auschwitz survivor.

PRE SS C O NTAC T

Michael Tritt Union Station Kansas City, Chief Marketing Officer M AIL

mtritt@UnionStation.org TE LE PHONE

913.219.6890

An Exhibition By

Presented By

Supported By

Hosted By

UnionStation.org