'Auschwitz: Not Long Ago. Not Far Away' opened Jan. 10 in Toronto at the Royal Ontario Museum, marking the only Canadian stop for the eight-year-old travelling show. The exhibit originally launched in Spain in 2017, and the Toronto version is a smaller edition due to space restrictions: showcasing some 500 artifacts and photos from the actual site of Auschwitz, the modern world’s most notorious genocide factory. But while the Canadian debut may seem belated, the timing is perfect: it arrives just a couple of weeks ahead of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau on Jan. 27. It’s also a significant time for the Canadian Jewish community, which is facing an unprecedented spike in antisemitism, including Holocaust denial and distortion, wherein Israelis are being called modern Nazis for their military response in Gaza after Oct. 7. Were these issues on the minds of the curators? How has the exhibit adapted to update post-Oct. 7? The CJN Daily‘s host, Ellin Bessner, went to see for herself. On a private media tour on the day before the exhibit opened to the public, Bessner walked through the museum wondering about the relevance of showcasing the eerie similarities between this past year and the months leading up to the Holocaust. As she discovered, the organizers aren't moralizing or preaching, but rather letting their rigorously researched historical evidence and facts speak for themselves. On the episode, you'll hear from Toronto Holocaust historian professor Robert Jan van Pelt, whose mother survived Auschwitz; and from British curator Paul Salmons, plus Luis Ferreiro, director of the private Spanish company MUSEALIA, which owns the touring exhibit. Joshua Basseches, the CEO of the ROM, also joins.

What we talked about:

Learn more about the ROM exhibit Auschwitz: Not So Long Ago. Not So Far Away and how to buy tickets. School groups get free admission.
Learn more about the exhibit’s chief Auschwitz historian, Toronto professor Robert Jan van Pelt, in The CJN archives
Read about the ROM’s exhibit 2017 called “The Evidence Room” which professor van Pelt also curated, in The CJN archives.

Credits

Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner)
Production team: Zachary Kauffman (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
Music: Dov Beck-Levine

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