Auschwitz
Not Long Ago. Not Far Away.
Will be published approx. on 23. May 2019
Book
Hardback
240 pages
978-0-7892-1331-0 (ISBN)
Description
This is the catalogue of the first-ever travelling exhibition about the Auschwitz concentration camp, where 1.1 million people - mostly Jews, but also non-Jewish Poles, Roma, and others - lost their lives.More than 280 objects and images from the exhibition are illustrated herein. Drawn from the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and other collections around the world, they range from the intimate (such as victims' family snapshots and personal belongings) to the immense (an actual surviving barrack from the Auschwitz III-Monowitz satellite camp); all are eloquent in their testimony. An authoritative yet accessible text weaves the stories behind these artefacts into an encompassing history of Auschwitz - from a Polish town at the crossroads of Europe, to the dark center of the Holocaust, to a powerful site of remembrance. Auschwitz: Not long ago. Not far away. is an essential volume for everyone who is interested in history and its lessons.
Reviews / Votes
Starred Review"In 2001, the Museum of Jewish Heritage opened in lower Manhattan, in sight of Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. Now the third-largest Holocaust museum in the world, it has devoted three of its floors to a major traveling exhibit. Historian van Pelt (Auschwitz: 1270 to the Present) offers not only a catalog of the exhibit but an authoritative history of the transformation of the small Polish village named after the Aramaic word for guests to a Nazi death camp where 1.1 million people were killed. As visitors approach the exhibit, they are confronted by a German National Railway freight car similar to the ones that carried men, women, and children to the camps. They then walk through hundreds of photographs, maps, architectural plans, works of art, artifacts-ragged shoes, coats, dresses, prisoners' uniforms, a trumpet played by a jazz musician-and even a reconstruction of an Auschwitz barracks. The items come from the museum's collection as well as from Poland's Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and more than 20 other institutions and private collections from around the world.Whether readers have visited the Auschwitz museum or are experiencing it here for the first time, this comprehensive yet accessible work presents a sobering history. Highly recommended for both public and academic libraries.
--Library Journal
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Dimensions
Height: 287 mm
Width: 238 mm
Thickness: 30 mm
Weight
1619 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7892-1331-0 (9780789213310)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Robert Jan van Pelt is chief curator of the exhibition Auschwitz: Not Long Ago. Not Far Away. Van Pelt, professor of cultural history in the School of Architecture at the University of Waterloo, is known internationally as one of the leading authorities on the history and architecture of the Auschwitz concentration camp. In 1997-98, he presided over the team that developed the master plan to preserve the camp, and in 2000 he served as expert witness for the defense in the famous libel case instigated by the British historian and Holocaust denier David Irving. Born in Haarlem, Van Pelt has published several books on Auschwitz, including the award-winning Auschwitz: 1270 to the Present (with Deborah Dwork) and The Case for Auschwitz. He co-curated the exhibition The Evidence Room, displayed at the Venice Biennale in 2016.
Content
Long Shadows: Ne w York Remember s
Bruce C. Ratner and
Michael S. Glickman 7
We All Nee d Peace. Memory,
Meanwhile, Bree ds Unre st.
Dr. Piotr M. A. Cywinski 9
The Heart of the Matter
Luis Ferreiro 11
A
uschwitz Stories and
the Story of A
uschwitz
Dr. Robert Jan van Pelt 13
AUSCHWITZ
Not long ago. Not far away.
Dr. Robert Jan van Pelt 21
THE ENCOUNTER
A Dot on the Map?22
The Whee l Set and the Shoe?26
January 27, 1945 28
BEFORE AUSCHWITZ
Oswiecim/Oshpitzin/Auschwitz
32
Jews, Judaism, and Anti-Judaism?36
Jews and Non-Jews in Moder n Europe?40
World War I?45
The Afterm ath of the Gre at War?47
The Third Reich:
A Nation of Comrades 53
Culling the Nation 57
Inter nment Camps for Roma 64
The Expulsion of the Jews 67
The Invasion of Poland and the
Beginning of World War II?76
"Unworthy of Life" 81
Fear?83
AUSCHWITZ
A Germ an Concentration Camp
in Auschwitz
86
Mug Shots 90
Prisoner Functionaries 95
The Common Prisoner s 97
Prisoner s with a "Good" Job 102
Business 105
The Invasion of the Soviet Union
and the Construction of Auschwitz-
Birkenau 110
The Beginning of the Holocaust 114
Genocidal Ingenuity 118
Hiding?126
Dep ortations 134
The Porajmos 137
Disbelief and Indiffere nce?139
Arr ival and Selection 141
This Black Spot at the Core
of Europe , This Red Spot,
This Spot of Fire . . . 146
The Lethal Core?151
Bearing Witness:
Sonder kommandos 156
A Parallel World 160
Kanada 161
On Innocence, Radical Loss,
and Spiritual Stamina 166
Strippe d 169
Behind the Barr ack Walls 173
Annihi lation Through Labor?176
Medical Exper iments 178
Resistance?181
The World Must Know 185
Upr ising?188
Dep arture s and the
jDeath March 190
AFTER AUSCHWITZ
Liber ation 194
Survivors 198
The Site?206
The Catastrophe in Number s 208
Ar chitect(ure )'s We akest Moment. Or,
When Not to Learn from Ar chitects
Djamel Zeniti 212
Searching for Meaning
in Traces of the Past
Paul Salmons 216
Conser ving Testaments
to Human Survival
Dr. Ana Galan Perez 219
Testimony in the Exhibition
Dr. Michael Berenbaum, with
Ken Winikur 222
From Gener ation to Gener ation
Jose Antonio Mugica
and Maria Teresa Aguirre 225
You Who Are Passing By 226
Notes 228
Further Reading?231
Index 234
Cre dits and Acknowledgments 239
Bruce C. Ratner and
Michael S. Glickman 7
We All Nee d Peace. Memory,
Meanwhile, Bree ds Unre st.
Dr. Piotr M. A. Cywinski 9
The Heart of the Matter
Luis Ferreiro 11
A
uschwitz Stories and
the Story of A
uschwitz
Dr. Robert Jan van Pelt 13
AUSCHWITZ
Not long ago. Not far away.
Dr. Robert Jan van Pelt 21
THE ENCOUNTER
A Dot on the Map?22
The Whee l Set and the Shoe?26
January 27, 1945 28
BEFORE AUSCHWITZ
Oswiecim/Oshpitzin/Auschwitz
32
Jews, Judaism, and Anti-Judaism?36
Jews and Non-Jews in Moder n Europe?40
World War I?45
The Afterm ath of the Gre at War?47
The Third Reich:
A Nation of Comrades 53
Culling the Nation 57
Inter nment Camps for Roma 64
The Expulsion of the Jews 67
The Invasion of Poland and the
Beginning of World War II?76
"Unworthy of Life" 81
Fear?83
AUSCHWITZ
A Germ an Concentration Camp
in Auschwitz
86
Mug Shots 90
Prisoner Functionaries 95
The Common Prisoner s 97
Prisoner s with a "Good" Job 102
Business 105
The Invasion of the Soviet Union
and the Construction of Auschwitz-
Birkenau 110
The Beginning of the Holocaust 114
Genocidal Ingenuity 118
Hiding?126
Dep ortations 134
The Porajmos 137
Disbelief and Indiffere nce?139
Arr ival and Selection 141
This Black Spot at the Core
of Europe , This Red Spot,
This Spot of Fire . . . 146
The Lethal Core?151
Bearing Witness:
Sonder kommandos 156
A Parallel World 160
Kanada 161
On Innocence, Radical Loss,
and Spiritual Stamina 166
Strippe d 169
Behind the Barr ack Walls 173
Annihi lation Through Labor?176
Medical Exper iments 178
Resistance?181
The World Must Know 185
Upr ising?188
Dep arture s and the
jDeath March 190
AFTER AUSCHWITZ
Liber ation 194
Survivors 198
The Site?206
The Catastrophe in Number s 208
Ar chitect(ure )'s We akest Moment. Or,
When Not to Learn from Ar chitects
Djamel Zeniti 212
Searching for Meaning
in Traces of the Past
Paul Salmons 216
Conser ving Testaments
to Human Survival
Dr. Ana Galan Perez 219
Testimony in the Exhibition
Dr. Michael Berenbaum, with
Ken Winikur 222
From Gener ation to Gener ation
Jose Antonio Mugica
and Maria Teresa Aguirre 225
You Who Are Passing By 226
Notes 228
Further Reading?231
Index 234
Cre dits and Acknowledgments 239