advertisement

German train car arrives in New York for Auschwitz exhibit

NEW YORK (AP) - On a Sunday morning, a crane lowered a rusty remnant of the Holocaust onto tracks outside Manhattan's Museum of Jewish Heritage - a vintage German train car like those used to transport men, women and children to Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps.

The windowless boxcar is among 700 Holocaust artifacts, most never before seen in the United States, which are being prepared for one of the largest exhibits ever on Auschwitz - a once ordinary Polish town called Oswiecim that the Nazis occupied and transformed into a human monstrosity.

The New York exhibit opens May 8, the day in 1945 when Germany surrendered and the camps were liberated.

German-made freight wagons like the one in the exhibit were used to deport people from their homes all around Europe. About 1 million Jews and nearly 100,000 others were gassed, shot, hanged or starved in Auschwitz out of a total of 6 million who perished in the Holocaust.

That fate awaited them after a long ride on the kind of train car that's the centerpiece of the New York exhibit.

"There were 80 people squeezed into one wooden car, with no facilities, just a pail to urinate," remembers Ray Kaner, a 92-year-old woman who still works as a Manhattan dental office manager. "You couldn't lie down, so you had to sleep sitting, and it smelled."

She and her sister had been forced to board the train in August 1944 in occupied Poland, after their parents died in the Lodz ghetto where Jews were held captive.

The Germans promised the sisters a better new life.

"We believed them, and we schlepped everything we could carry," she said. "We still had great hope."

Once in Auschwitz, "they took away whatever we carried," and prisoners were beaten, stripped naked and heads shaved bald.

Titled "Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away," the upcoming exhibit will transport visitors into the grisly faceoff between perpetrators and victims.

On display will be concrete posts from an Auschwitz fence covered in barbed and electrified wires; a gas mask used by the SS; a desk belonging to Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Hoss; and a dagger and helmet used by Heinrich Himmler, the chief architect of Hitler's "final solution."

The collection of prisoners' personal items includes a comb improvised from scrap metal; a trumpet one survivor used to save his life by entertaining his captors; and tickets for passage on the St. Louis, a ship of refugees whom the United States refused to accept, sending them back to Europe where some were killed by the Nazis.

The materials are on loan from about 20 institutions worldwide, plus private collections, curated by Robert Jan van Pelt, a leading Auschwitz authority, and other experts in conjunction with the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Poland and Musealia, a Spanish company that organizes traveling shows.

The New York one will run through Jan. 3.

The eight-decade-old box car brought to New York on a cargo ship came from a German auction, in terrible condition. Van Pelt's team bought it and restored it.

"The dark, smelly car represents that moment of transition from the world of the living that people understood and trusted to the radically alien world of the camps where the doors opened and families were separated forever," said van Pelt, whose relatives in Amsterdam lived down the street from Anne Frank's family.

"The Nazis wanted to wipe out every last Jew in the world," and at the end of a train trip, "this is where the last goodbyes were said."

The exhibit items all belonged to somebody - most now gone, either because they were murdered in camps or survived and have since died. Some people who inherited artifacts came forward with stories attached to them.

Thousands of survivors live in New York City, among the last who can offer personal testimony.

And that's why the exhibit is important, said real estate developer Bruce Ratner, the chairman of the museum's board of trustees.

"While we had all hoped after the Holocaust that the international community would come together to stop genocide, mass murder and ethnic cleansing, these crimes continue and there are more refugees today than at any time since the Second World War," said Ratner. "So my hope for this exhibit is that it motivates all of us to make the connections between the world of the past and the world of the present, and to take a firm stand against hate."

___

This story has been corrected to show the ghetto in occupied Poland is named Lodz, not Lotz.

Holocaust survivor Leon Kaner, age 94, views a vintage German train car, like those used to transport people to Auschwitz and other death camps, outside the Museum of Jewish Heritage, in New York, Sunday, March 31, 2019. The train car joins hundreds of artifacts from Auschwitz at the museum for an exhibit entitled "Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away," that opens to the public on May 8. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) The Associated Press
Holocaust survivors Leon Kaner, age 94, and his wife Ray Kaner, age 92, pass a vintage German train car, like those used to transport people to Auschwitz and other death camps, outside the Museum of Jewish Heritage, in New York, Sunday, March 31, 2019. The train car joins hundreds of artifacts from Auschwitz at the museum for an exhibit entitled "Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away," that opens to the public on May 8. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) The Associated Press
Portraits of Holocaust survivors are displayed at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, as a vintage German train car, like those used to transport people to Auschwitz and other death camps, is lowered onto tracks outside the museum in New York, Sunday, March 31, 2019. The train car joins hundreds of artifacts from Auschwitz at the museum for an exhibit entitled "Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away," that opens to the public on May 8. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) The Associated Press
A vintage German train car, like those used to transport people to Auschwitz and other death camps, is lowered onto tracks outside the Museum of Jewish Heritage, in New York, Sunday, March 31, 2019. The train car joins hundreds of artifacts from Auschwitz at the museum for an exhibit entitled "Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away," that opens to the public on May 8. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) The Associated Press
Workers assemble tracks for a vintage German train car, like those used to transport people to Auschwitz and other death camps, before it was lowered by crane outside the Museum of Jewish Heritage, in New York, Sunday, March 31, 2019. The train car joins hundreds of artifacts from Auschwitz at the museum for an exhibit entitled "Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away," that opens to the public on May 8. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) The Associated Press
Holocaust survivor Leon Kaner, age 94, shows his tattoo number as he stands beside a vintage German train car, like those used to transport people to Auschwitz and other death camps, outside the Museum of Jewish Heritage, in New York, Sunday, March 31, 2019. The train car joins hundreds of artifacts from Auschwitz at the museum for an exhibit entitled "Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away," that opens to the public on May 8. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) The Associated Press
In this undated photo provided by Musealia Entertainment SL, a barrack from Auschwitz III-Monowitz labor camp is shown on exhibit in Madrid, Spain. The barrack is among hundreds of artifacts from Auschwitz that will go on display at New York's Museum of Jewish Heritage on May 8, 2019. The exhibit, entitled "Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away," includes a rail car like the ones used to transport prisoners to the camp and runs through Jan. 3, 2020. (Centro de Exposiciones Arte Canal/Musealia Entertainment SL via AP) The Associated Press
In this April 27, 2018 photo provided by Musealia Entertainment SL, a shirt worn by a political prisoner at the Auschwitz concentration camp is shown while on display at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oswiecim, Poland. The shirt joins hundreds of artifacts from Auschwitz at New York's Museum of Jewish Heritage at an exhibit entitled "Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away," that opens to the public on May 8, 2019. The exhibit, which includes a rail car like the ones used to transport prisoners to the camp, runs through Jan. 3, 2020. (Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum via Musealia Entertainment SL via AP) The Associated Press
In this June 28, 2018 photo provided by Musealia Entertainment SL, a red dress shoe that belonged to an unknown woman who was deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp is shown on display at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oswiecim, Poland. The shoe, from a collection of prisoners’ personal items, is part or an exhibit at New York's Museum of Jewish Heritage entitled "Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away," that opens to the public on May 8. The exhibit, which includes a rail car like the ones used to transport prisoners to the camp, runs through Jan. 3, 2020. (Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum via Musealia Entertainment SL via AP) The Associated Press
In this Feb. 13, 2018 photo provided by Musealia Entertainment SL, concrete posts topped with barbed and electrified wires from the Auschwitz concentration camp are shown while on exhibit in Madrid, Spain. The fence will be among hundreds of artifacts from Auschwitz displayed at New York's Museum of Jewish Heritage during an exhibit entitled "Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away," that opens to the public on May 8, 2019. The exhibit, which includes a rail car like the ones used to transport prisoners to the camp, runs through Jan. 3, 2020. (Jose Barera/Musealia Entertainment SL via AP) The Associated Press
Article Comments
Guidelines: Keep it civil and on topic; no profanity, vulgarity, slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. If a comment violates these standards or our terms of service, click the "flag" link in the lower-right corner of the comment box. To find our more, read our FAQ.