Artifacts from Jewish Heritage museum at "Auschwitz" exhibition in New York city
Noa Gutow-Ellis, Andrea Schnelzauer and Treva Walsh
As of mid-November, over 125,000 people have visited Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away. and the Museum has extended the exhibition through August 30, 2020. This level of visitation offers a newfound visibility for objects on display, particularly for artifacts in the Museum of Jewish Heritage collection whose provenance dates back to Dr. Yaffa Eliach’s pioneering work at the Center for Holocaust Studies.
The Center for Holocaust Studies, established by Dr. Eliach in Brooklyn, New York in 1974 as the first organization in the United States dedicated to the study of the Holocaust, merged with the Museum of Jewish Heritage in 1990. The Museum is privileged to hold the rich collections of artifacts and testimony steeped in deep community outreach by Dr. Eliach, a noted scholar, and her team. Dr. Eliach was one of the first researchers to collect testimony in the United States.
Beginning her work in the 1970s, she recorded the stories of many survivors who passed away before the gathering of Holocaust testimony became popular in later decades. She saved objects and stories from older survivors before it was too late – before others even began conceiving of similar projects.
One of these objects is a pair of pajamas – an ordinary piece of clothing with an extraordinary story.
Anna Warzecha Tenenbaum, a dressmaker from Tomaszów Marzowiecki, was ghettoized with her husband Joseph, a tailor, and their two daughters, Dorka and Freida. After ghettoization, Anna and her family were deported to Blizyn concentration camp. In Blizyn, Dorka was taken from Anna’s arms during an Aktion and killed, and the family was separated when Joseph was transferred to Płaszów concentration camp. Later on, Anna and her remaining daughter Freida were deported to Auschwitz where they managed to survive until liberation by the Red Army in January 1945.
Following its world premiere in Madrid, the groundbreaking exhibition Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away. opened in New York City in May 2019 to critical acclaim: praised by The New York Times as “illuminat[ing] the topography of evil,” while “also highlighting the strenuous struggle for survival.” Produced by the international exhibition firm Musealia and the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Poland, the show features 700 objects and 400 photographs from over 20 lenders, and from the collection of the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. użyczonych przez ponad 20 osób, jak również pochodzących z Muzeum Dziedzictwa Żydowskiego Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust.
Photo. Musseum of Jewish Heritage