Death Wall in the courtyard of block 11 and participated in a guided tour of the exhibition in block 17. Lastly, they visited the site of the Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp.
The new Austrian exhibition “Far removed. Austria and Auschwitz” replaced the exhibition presented in Block 17 from 1978 to 2013.
In addition to the fate of Austrian victims of Auschwitz and the resistance movement co-founded by Austrian prisoners, the new exhibition also tells the story of the involvement of Austrians as perpetrators and accessories in crimes committed in the camp.
“Austria was part of the Third Reich from 1938 to 1945. Austria’s history during the Nazi period obligates us to commemorate at least 110,000 Austrians who were victims of Nazi terror. They were murdered because they were Jews, “Gypsies” (Roma and Sinti), mentally or physically disabled people. They were persecuted and killed for their political views, religious beliefs and activities in the resistance movement or because they did not conform to the prevailing norms. Between 18,000 - 20,000 Austrians were deported to Auschwitz and later murdered or died due to the living conditions in the camp. Only an estimated 1,500 survived” - we read at the entrance to the exhibition.“The history of Austria under National Socialism also commits us to remember the co-responsibility of a substantial part of the population for permitting criminal acts of lawlessness. There were relatively few Austrians among the staff of Auschwitz, but some of them held key positions in the planning and execution of the mass murder. Although women did not have the same access to positions of authority in the camp system as men, some Austrian women participated in the crimes as supervisors, the so-called Aufseherin." - it stated.
The exhibition ends with a quote from Auschwitz survivor Ruth Kluger: “We say “Never again”, but look at all the massacres that have happened in the meantime. Saying it should never happen again is absurd”.
The exhibition was created by the scientific-curatorial team of Hannes Sulzenbacher and Albert Lichtblau, and the architect Martin Kohlbauer. The project to rebuild the exhibition was coordinated by the Secretary-General of the National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism, Hannah Lessing and Head of the Coordination Office of the National Fund, Claire Fritsch and her team.