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Animal-shaped stencils that a mother made from concentration camp shoes and gave to her son for Christmas are among the objects in a new permanent exhibition Auschwitz The museum is located on the largest site Nazi Death camp.
Other items on display when officials unveiled the exhibit on Friday included a paper bag to hold cement, which was used as thermal underwear, and drawings secretly made by prisoners. Objects detailing the everyday experiences of Auschwitz prisoners were displayed in Blocks 8 and 9 of the former Nazi concentration camp.
Magdalena Urbaniak, coordinator of the exhibition, said it was difficult and painful to imagine what the woman went through when she created the stencils from the shoes.
“It is hard to describe this feeling, we cannot even understand the situation, the extreme situation in which this mother found herself in the camp, what emotions she experienced to do something for her child, to lift his spirits and contribute to his survival,” she said.
The new exhibition depicts elements of the camp routine, from the early morning hours, through to washing, meals and forced labor in the evening in the camp barracks. It gives visitors a glimpse of the emotions experienced by prisoners, from extreme hunger and cold to fear and despair.
Andrzej Korczyk, deputy director of the Auschwitz Museum, told The Associated Press, “Witnesses are dying, the world is changing, technologies are changing and new generations are emerging, there is a need for a new approach to the subject.” “So humanity needs to be portrayed, this individual destiny needs to be portrayed.”
Nazi Germany More than 40 concentration, labor and extermination camps were built at this location in occupied Poland during World War II.
The Nazis established the Auschwitz I camp in 1940 to imprison Poles, while Auschwitz II-Birkenau opened two years later and became the primary site of the extermination of Jews during the Holocaust.
Nazi German forces ultimately murdered approximately 1.1 million people at the complex.
While most of the victims of the genocide were Jews killed on an industrial scale, Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war, gay people, and others were also targeted for extermination.
The museum operating today on the site of the former Auschwitz camps was founded in 1947 and is one of the UNESCO World Heritage site.
The museum is currently in the process of replacing its permanent exhibition, which it had housed for decades. Officials say the idea is to reflect new knowledge about Holocaust history as well as the evolving demographic of visitors.
The new permanent exhibition is being built on the ground floor of six blocks of the former Auschwitz I camp. The first phase of modernization of the museum has been completed with the opening of exhibitions in Blocks 8 and 9.
The second phase, which also includes an exhibition dedicated to the Holocaust in Blocks 6 and 7, will be finalized in 2027. The third and final phase, located in Blocks 4 and 5, will be represented by an exhibition describing the camp as an institution, which is scheduled for completion in 2030.