Pictures: Auschwitz: Not long ago. Not far away
know to understand. Even though there is widespread democratic society that promotes and respects human
consensus among visitors about the harshness and rights, something the public perceives as such.
discomfort generated by the visit, this is considered
as a necessary evil. Piotr Cywinski (2017: 16), Therefore, by disclosing the past, the exhibition in
director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Madrid has been an exhibition seeking to make an
Museum, also points this out when he states that it impact on the present, forcing a collective reflection
is healthy the existence of a certain sense of unease on a horrible event that may not be 100% replicated
when approaching the knowledge of the Holocaust, again, but whose origins were forged in a seed of
otherwise it could endanger the conscience of anyone hatred and intolerance that unfortunately is still
who hopes for a peaceful world. very much present today. We must never forget
-and this is how the exhibition reminds us- that the
On the other hand, “Auschwitz: Not long ago. Not Holocaust did not begin with mass murder but with
far away” aims to bring an improvement of the the consolidation of a rhetoric of hatred that ended
present through the knowledge of the past. Memory up being assimilated into that political and social
is the contemporary image a society has from its normality within a cultured and advanced society.
past, consequently, the dissemination of the origins,
causes, consequences along with the social, political
and cultural influence of the Holocaust can only be
Bibliography
considered a useful tool of social pedagogy in the
present. The exhibits tell us about stories but also
about memories, they tell us about the past but also
about the bonds of that past with our present. A
generic message is conveyed to the public that places
Young, James (1993). The Texture of Memory: Holocaust Memorials
and Meaning. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Jan Van Pelt, Robert (Ed.) (2017). Auschwitz: Not long ago. Not far
away. Exhibition catalogue. Madrid: Musealia.
the duty to remember as the existential axis of a
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