Nothing can replace a personal meeting with a survivor. Nothing will be able to replace a direct interaction with survivors, their voices, eyes, body language. But there is crucial, meticulous, dedicated work that has been carried on throughout the years to document and preserve and make available testimonies and artefacts for future generations.
We wish to express our deep gratitude to Ulrika & Joel Citron, Elisabeth Citrom, Annika & Gabriel Urwitz, Ide and David Dangoor who made the exhibition possible and to the genuine engagement and dedicated of the Swedish History Museum and our partners USC Shoah Foundation and Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.
The Holocaust- the systematic and industrial extermination of Europe’s Jews lead by an ‘enlightened’ European county – is unique. But it is also universal as lessons can be drawn from that darkest period directly to our time.
The Holocaust is not only a Jewish concern, it is and should be a universal concern. Preserving the memory of the Shoah should be a universal concern, and a permanent exhibition or a Holocaust museum in Sweden should be a Swedish concern. We hope that the exhibition Speaking Memories – the Last Witnesses of the Holocaust is a tiny step in this direction.
Lizzie Oved Scheja
Director
Jewish Culture in Sweden and Speaking Memories