There are objects related to the camp system - such as a barrack that was reused after the liberation - or parts of the Nazi administrative system. These include bureaucratic documents generated in the camp, as well as SS officers' instruments, furniture, and clothing; the bunk beds located in the barracks; the simple kitchenware, work and doctors' utensils etc. Furthermore, the collection contains artifacts of the military industry itself, like the wagons of the German railway system, and, perhaps what is most recognizable, the set of textiles that make up the striped uniforms of the prisoners along with wooden clogs.
Another very interesting group of objects is the set of diaries and memoirs written by the survivors, as well as letters, documents and reflections in the international press after the liberation of Auschwitz on January 27 1945.
Photographs depicting events prior to the deportations (mainly from the ghettos), as well as during the process in the camp, are displayed either individually or in collections. Drawings documenting camp life are also included as testimonies of survival and documentary support. In some cases these drawings were found after liberation, placed in bottles or cans and stored in the basements of the barracks. In some cases, the drawings bear a signature, as in the case of the artist David Olère.
C. The didactic collections
An interesting group of models has been created exnovo to explain the architecture of the camp (Van Pelt, 2018b).
Conclusion
Due to its own identity and great historical magnitude, the exhibition 'Auschwitz. Not Long Ago. Not Far Away' has been a challenge in each phase of its creation and production.
Because of the characteristics of the itinerant exhibition composed of more than 22 different collections, its management and conservation has been one of the milestones of the project.
All management efforts are based on an open dialogue and constant communication with entities and families that have temporarily ceded their artifacts, and have therefore placed their trust in both the exhibition management team and the team of the Madrid exhibition hall.
The exhibition 'Auschwitz. Not Long Ago. Not Far Away' forms a complex and significant reality; a message for the defence of human rights where world heritage is the tool by which the past meets the future.
* Ana Galán Pérez - Collections Manager of the "Auschwitz" exhibition; Anna Biederman - University of Zaragoza, member of research group Observatorio Aragonés de Arte en la Esfera Pública.