Created by Nazi Germany, the most significant site of the Holocaust, Auschwitz, was not a single entity. It gradually became a system of camps that combined two functions: a concentration camp and a killing centre in which some 1 million Jews — and tens of thousands of others, including Poles, Romani people, and Soviet POWs — were detained and murdered in a systematic and industrialized fashion. This powerful exhibition, which arrives in Toronto just ahead of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on January 27, 2025, explores the dual identity of the Auschwitz camp as a physical setting — the largest documented mass murder site in human history — and as a symbol of the borderless manifestation of hatred and human atrocity.
The internationally touring exhibition, created by Musealia, co-produced by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum in Poland, and developed with an esteemed international panel of curators and historians, is one of the most comprehensive exhibitions ever presented on the subject, and ROM is the only Canadian stop on its international tour. Survivor testimonials, historical documentation, and first-hand accounts by emancipating forces create a powerful connection to the exhibition's more than 500 original objects — many of which have never been seen before in Canada — on loan from the Auschwitz Memorial and more than 20 other major institutions and private collections around the world. Additionally, physical camp objects and archival records provide a contextual framework for the political and social landscape in Europe before the Auschwitz camp was created, the complex's day-to-day environment, and its continued legacy, raising awareness of the intellectual ingredients and human machinations at work in realizing such systemic barbarism.
Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away. underscores a critical need to understand the underlying conditions that allowed the Holocaust to happen. By reflecting on the past, visitors are invited to consider their role in creating a more inclusive and tolerant society.
