Malmö, Sweden, October, 13, 2021.- In May 2022, the “Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away.” exhibition, coproduced by Musealia and the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, will open to the Swedish public for a limited time at Malmömässan in Malmö. The exhibition launch date will be announced soon at www.auschwitz.net where you can now subscribe to for updates, early tickets and more information.
This announcement was made today by the Mayor of Malmö Katrin Stjernfeldt Jammeh, during her appearance at the International Forum on Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Antisemitism in the city of Malmö, where she highlighted that “It is important to make history visible, both to remember and to shape the future. The exhibition is an important complement to the city’s long-term work against anti-Semitism”.
Malmö will be the only host city for the exhibition in Scandinavia and hundred thousand of visitors are expected to visit the collection during its stay, among them many school pupils. This follows its success in the Spanish capital Madrid and New York and Kansas City in the United States, where this exhibition created by Spanish firm Musealia and the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum has attracted record numbers of visitors.
“In Madrid, in New York, and in Kansas City, this exhibition has been visited by almost a million people. This is the power of authenticity, as this exhibition presents hundreds of authentic objects. But this also shows that people want to face the difficult and painful history of Auschwitz” said Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum’s director, Dr. Piotr Cywiński. “We cannot change the past, but we can search for the keys to build our present and common future in memory. We need to know what can happen when human hatred gets out of control”, he added.
This morning, it was also announced that the exhibition’s creators will work with local museums in the region to incorporate special objects and stories with local connections in order to highlight the relevance of the story of Auschwitz to the people of Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Iceland.
These items will complement the collection of over 700 original objects sourced from over 20 museums around the world, including Yad Vashem (Israel), the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM). The majority come the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum in Poland, co-producer of the exhibition and which has loaned over 400 objects.
A wide-ranging cultural programme is also planned for the exhibition’s stay in Scandinavia. The activities will include lectures, talks and other events at which survivors and experts will share their perspectives on the history of the Auschwitz camp and the Holocaust to complement the contents of the exhibition and promote the engagement of the Swedish public. Thousands of school pupils are also invited to participate in the education programme, with free visits to the exhibition.
In this sense, Musealia CEO and Exhibition Director, Luis Ferreiro, mentioned that “The exhibition’s stay in Sweden marks its return to Europe and its only stop in Scandinavia. The choice of Malmo was not accidental; the commitment of its authorities to bring this complex and traumatic part of our past closer to its fellow citizens has been decisive. We hope the exhibition becomes an educational opportunity for the entire community to learn and understand the history of Auschwitz, and the implications that it contains, for all of us, in the present”.
The stay of the exhibition in the city has been made possible by the institutional collaboration of the city itself, the region of Skåne and the involvement of the Forum for Living History as educational partner. The exhibition was jointly produced by the Spanish company Musealia and the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum in Poland. In Sweden, it will be presented with the local partner Nordic Exhibitions.
“Unfortunately, we see anti-Semitism increasing throughout Europe, not least in Sweden and Malmö. I am very happy that Region Skåne has managed to get this extremely important exhibition, and to Malmö in particular. It addresses problems we see locally – but is also a natural continuation of the commitment Sweden is taking on in conjunction with the large Holocaust conference that is taking place in Malmö”, stated Carl Johan Sonesson (m), First Governor of Region Skåne
“We look forward to being a part of this project and how we can contribute in the best possible way. It is a great opportunity for young people in Sweden to get a chance to take part in a very well-thought-of exhibition about the Holocaust. The Living History Forum has extensive experience in developing educational resources for young people who want to learn more about the Holocaust, so we have a lot to contribute” said Caroline Källner, temporary superintendent at The Living History Forum.