Auschwitz

Website of the new Austrian exhibition at Auschwitz
Website of the new Austrian exhibition at Auschwitz

The new Austrian exhibition in Block 17 of the State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau bears the title "Far removed. Austria and Auschwitz". The notion "far removed" refers to the geographical distance between Austria and Auschwitz, which was part of the Nazi strategy to conceal the mass murder. At the same time, removal meant extermination: the physical removal of the deportees, from Austria and from the realm of the living.

In July 2009, in a move to implement Item 17 "Responsibility towards the victims of National Socialism" of the chapter "Art and Culture" of its governmental program, the Austrian Federal Government resolved to renew the "Austrian memorial" at the former concentration and extermination camp and present-day State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland. It entrusted the National Fund with the planning and implementation of the entire project.

In addition to the permanent exhibition on the history of the concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, the so-called national exhibitions tell the stories of the citizens of the countries from where people were deported to the complex of camps at Auschwitz. These also include the Austrian national exhibition, which was displayed in Block 17 and opened to the public on 19 March 1978. It has remained unchanged since this time.