New exhibition

On 4 October 2021, the new Austrian national exhibition “Far Removed. Austria and Auschwitz” was opened in Block 17 of the former main camp of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp, marking the completion of a long-standing project of the National Fund. The curatorial-scientific team led by Hannes Sulzenbacher (overall management) and Albert Lichtblau (scientific management), which also included Siegfried Göllner, Birgit Johler, Christoph Mai, Christiane Rothländer and Barbara Staudinger, was responsible for developing the content. The new exhibition was designed by Martin Kohlbauer.

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.

After two pan-European tender procedures, the National Fund commissioned the successful team to curate the new Austrian exhibition at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in late April 2014. In March 2015 it commissioned an architect to design the exhibition.

Several projects were developed in parallel with the renewal of the Austrian exhibition at Auschwitz.