With more than 700 artifacts and 400 photographs from dozens of museums, institutions and private collections worldwide, Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away. is the most comprehensive compilation dedicated to the history of Auschwitz and its horrific role in the Holocaust ever presented in North America.
The traveling exhibition opened at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City on May 8, the anniversary of Germany’s surrender to the Allies in World War II and subsequent liberation of survivors in Nazi death camps. Auschwitz, once the site of a peaceful Polish town, was the deadliest of these camps, facilitating the murders of approximately 1 million Jews and tens of thousands of other prisoners.
“By making the most notorious Nazi camp a stand-in for the Holocaust, the exhibition offers a tighter focus than other exhibits, the New York Times wrote. “Its power is in the containment of its narrative to a set of artifacts left behind by individuals who came to a specific place of horror.”
Producing the murals, posters, panels and supporting visuals for this exhibit was a deeply poignant experience for the Duggal Visual Solutions team, as we often found ourselves stopping to acknowledge the horror of the Holocaust and—as the title of the exhibit implies—its unsettling proximity to the present, both literally and figuratively.
“While we had all hoped after the Holocaust that the international community would come together to stop genocide, mass murder and ethnic cleansing, these crimes continue,” Bruce C. Ratner, chairman of the Museum or Jewish Heritage Board of Trustees, told Metro. “My hope for this exhibit is that it motivates all of us to make the connections between the world of the past and the world of the present, and to take a firm stand against hate, bigotry, ethnic violence, religious intolerance and nationalist brutality of all kinds.”
In a documentary of this size and magnitude, material selection becomes crucial. Duggal’s Lyndall Kazmarzyk consulted with the exhibition team to recommend the right material for each application throughout the three floors of the museum where Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away. is on display, from custom wallpaper to vinyl to Dibond. Associates Tricia Gagliardo and Jonathan Chau assisted with coordination and project management through the production of nearly 900 graphics.
“The exhibition, with its 700 objects and 400 photographs and drawings from Auschwitz; 30 other lenders; and the museum’s own collection, avoids simplistic cause and effect,” the Times wrote. “Rather, it illuminates the topography of evil, the deliberate designing of a hell on earth by fanatical racists and compliant architects and provisioners, while also highlighting the strenuous struggle for survival…”
Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away. arrives in New York after the exhibition drew more than 600,000 visitors through two extensions at Madrid’s Arte Canal Exhibition Centre, making it one of Europe’s most visited exhibitions in 2018. It will be on display at the Museum of Jewish Heritage until January 3, 2020 and is expected to continue touring afterward. Learn more and buy tickets here.
