New permanent exhibition at Auschwitz museum uses personal objects to show daily life of prisoners

OSWIECIM, Poland (AP) – Animal-shaped stencils a mother made from a concentration camp shoe and gave to her son for Christmas are among items in a new permanent exhibition at the Auschwitz museum, located on the site of the largest Nazi death camp.

Other items on display as officials unveiled the exhibition Friday included a paper bag for holding cement that was used as thermal underwear, and drawings made in secret by prisoners. The objects, detailing the everyday experiences of Auschwitz prisoners, were displayed in blocs 8 and 9 of the former Nazi concentration camp.

Magdalena Urbaniak, the exhibition’s coordinator, said it was difficult and painful to imagine what the woman went through when she crafted the stencils from a shoe.

“It’s hard to describe this feeling, we can’t even understand this 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 illustrates elements of the camp routine from the morning gong, through washing, meals and forced labor to evenings in the camp barracks. It gives visitors a glimpse into the feelings experienced by prisoners, from extreme hunger and cold to fear and hopelessness.

“Witnesses are passing away, the world is changing, technologies are changing, and new generations are emerging, requiring a new approach to the subject,” Andrzej Kacorzyk, the deputy director of the Auschwitz museum, told The Associated Press. “Hence the need to portray humanity, the need to portray this individual fate.”

Nazi Germany built more than 40 concentration, labor and extermination camps 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 was opened two years later and became the primary site of the extermination of Jews during the Holocaust.

Nazi German forces ultimately murdered some 1.1 million people at the complex.

While most of the victims of the Holocaust were Jews killed on an industrial scale, Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war, gay people and others were also targeted for elimination.

The museum operating today on the site of the former Auschwitz camps was established in 1947 and is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The museum is currently in the process of changing its permanent exhibition, which had been in place 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 floors of six blocks of the former Auschwitz I camp. The first phase of the museum’s modernization is complete with the opening of the exhibition in blocks 8 and 9.

A second phase, including an exhibition dedicated to the Holocaust in blocks 6 and 7, will be finalized in 2027. The third and final stage, represented by an exhibition describing the camp as an institution, located in blocks 4 and 5, is scheduled for completion in 2030.