Camille Orquera/Contributing Writer
The only known documentation of Jews arriving at the Auschwitz concentration camp 75 years ago will be featured at a new Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU exhibit.
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and with it comes a photo album exhibit called “Auschwitz—A Place on Earth.”
Over two days of events at the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU will feature the opening ceremony, a film screening and an international symposium.
“There is a large percentage of millennials who do not know about Auschwitz. Two-thirds of American millennials surveyed in a recent poll cannot identify what Auschwitz is,” said Susan Gladstone, executive director of the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU, referencing a poll made by the Washington Post last year.
Auschwitz was the largest Nazi concentration camp during the Holocaust and over 1 million people lost their lives at the camp.
“It’s part of our mission to educate the public and this exhibition is part of the educational process that increases awareness about this very important aspect of world history,” said Gladstone.
Opening the exhibition this Thursday is the “Auschwitz-A Place on Earth: The Auschwitz Album,” which is a collection of photographs that document the arrival of Jews to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp.
“Visitors will see a depiction of how the camp operated… The Nazis took these photographs of their own horrific acts,” said Gladstone.
Following the photo exhibit, the museum will screen the documentary “Made in Auschwitz: The Untold Story of Block 10,” directed by Sylvia Nagel and Sonya Winterberg and co-sponsored by the Miami Jewish Film Festival.
The documentary uses archival footage, survivor testimonies and legal records to tell the story of over 400 women who underwent medical experimentation in Auschwitz under the “sadistic gynecologist,” Carl Clauberg.
There will be a discussion following the screening with director Sylvia Nagel and Michaela Moura-Koçoglu of the FIU Center for Women’s and Gender Studies.
Sunday’s international symposium, named “Auschwitz as Place: Past, Present, and Future,” will have experts examining the significance of the Auschwitz camp network, museum, a tourist destination and social media influence.
The speakers for the symposium include Robert Jan van Pelt, Rabbi Avi Baumol and Meghan Lundrigan.
Gladstone emphasized that the topic of Auschwitz and the Holocaust needs to continue to remind new generations of the horror that must never be repeated.
“It’s important that this history doesn’t die with the people who experienced it. As the saying goes, never forget. In order to never forget, we have to keep telling the story to new generations,” she said.
For more information about the exhibit and the Jewish Museum of Florida, visit https://jmof.fiu.edu/.
The exhibition opening ceremony is on Thursday, Jan. 9 from 7 p.m.-9 p.m . and runs until Mar. 1. The film screening is on Saturday, Jan. 11 from 8 p.m.-10 p.m. The symposium is on Sunday, Jan. 12 from 12 p.m.-6 p.m. All events are free.
The museum is open Tuesday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. at 301 Washington Ave, Miami Beach, FL 33139. Free for museum members, FIU students, faculty and staff, $12 for adults, $8 for seniors and students, $24 for family.
About Post Author
