'AUSCHWITZ.
NOT LONG AGO.
NOT FAR AWAY'
Ana Galán Pérez, Anna Biedermann*
This article aims to present the complexity of the management of the collections that are included in the temporary exhibition 'Auschwitz. Not Long Ago. Not Far Away', inaugurated in Madrid in December 2017 in co-operation with the State Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland. It is also scheduled to travel around Europe and America in the coming years. The exhibit objects belong to more than twenty international collections concerned with the heritage of the Holocaust.
Over the last year, the Department of Collections Management has worked hand-in-hand with the curators and museography team, facing a series of challenges that have gradually been resolved. Reflection processes have been accompanied by tools and work methods that are consistent with the magnitude and relevance of the project.
It is difficult to approach this type of tragic heritage, the significance of which oscillates between the historical, social and traumatic. Its comprehension goes beyond the known and assumed classification, so the following questions arise:
- What happens when there is no clear classification system for the collections related to the Holocaust?
- What is the conservation procedure?
The documentation provided for the inclusion of the Auschwitz-Birkenau German Nazi concentration and extermination camp (1940-1945) in the List of World Heritage Sites by UNESCO stresses its Outstanding Universal Value, and that it must be preserved as a witness of what crimes human beings have been able to commit, so that it does not happen again. In other words, the objective is to preserve the camp and use it for educational purpose focused on the Holocaust.
The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum was created in 1947, very soon after its liberation on January 27 1945. It is the owner of the largest collection loaned to the exhibition, and its objects help us to understand the history of the other collections. Each and every one of the objects has, in one way or another, shared space and time (Cywinski, 2018).
These objects provide new information through their narrative as vehicles of transmission of the message in the exhibition 'Auschwitz. Not Long Ago. Not Far Away' (Ferreiro, 2018). To its study as individual objects with diverse origins, materials and manufactures, a new perspective is added: that of a collection of collections related to the period before, during and after Auschwitz (Van Pelt, 2018a).
This set of elements, which individually transmit specific values, contribute a new vision integrated from the narrative in a new global message. That makes it possible to provide more data to the documentary processes of the museums of origin, expanding and enriching their documentary information and cataloging within the framework of the management of the collections of the exhibition.
Preventive conservation at the exhibition, which is currently on display to the public in Madrid.
All images in this article: Musealia, José Barea.