In partnership with the Cincinnati Museum Center, the Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center is hosting international exhibition Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away. at historic Union Terminal. The harrowing images, personal artifacts, and testimonies from survivors of the death and labor camp are on view in Cincinnati for six months. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum Press Officer Pawel Sawicki isn’t just exposed to these materials and these stories on a daily basis – it’s his job to share them, and to help others make sense of them.
It’s a deeply emotional, delicate task.
“Finding this balance is is something that is a constant challenge,” Sawicki said in conversation with Kayla Berenson, Marketing & Outreach Manager at the Holocaust & Humanity Center. “When I look at my work… I also get emotional because this is the work that we’re doing. But it I get far more emotional when I learn myself, when I hear a survivor or read a book or am at the site myself and then I let myself this emotion go in because it will maybe make me a a better in the work that I’m doing. My job is to commemorate all those people who suffered and were murdered.”
The exhibition intertwines the stories of victims, survivors, and even perpetrators, revealing the full scope of the human experience at Auschwitz.
For Sawicki, part of the responsibility of remembrance is to acknowledge that those who carried out atrocities were not monsters, but people who chose to follow destructive ideologies.
“No one is born a victim. No one is born a perpetrator. People can become perpetrators and turn other into victims,” Sawicki said. “It is not a long process but it is a process and I think when we show people that there are steps, that it never starts with gas chambers, that there are so many things that led to this… maybe it will open eyes of many people who are living in the world today and maybe this will be something that will lead to some sort of a change in them.”
As he’s confronted with tragic stories and heartbreaking images, Sawicki still manages to not only find hope in his daily work, but purpose and meaning.
“You know, if we think that one person can make such a different for and horrible difference, then maybe we should start thinking what difference can we do when we have all this positive thing that we want to do with the world,” he said.
You can watch the full conversation with Pawel Sawicki below or by clicking here. Tickets to Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away. are available for purchase here.
The presentation of this international exhibition would not have been possible without the generous support of these community leaders and organizations.
- The Jewish Federation of Cincinnati
- The Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati
- H.B., E.W. & F.R. Luther Charitable Foundation, Fifth Third Bank, Trustee
- Jacob G. Schmidlapp Fund, Fifth Third Bank, Trustee
- Helen G., Henry F., Louise Tuechter Dornette Foundation, Fifth Third Bank, Trustee
- The Neil Bortz Family
- Anonymous
- Beth and Louis Guttman
- Fred and Patti Heldman
- Paul Heldman and Deborah Kirshner
- Roger and Julie Heldman
- The Kantor/Knue Families
- Rockwern Foundation
- Rosenthal Family Foundation
- Les and Renee Sandler
- Larry and Rhonda Sheakley
- Ginger Warner
- Marcia & Richard Weiland (of blessed memory)
- Western & Southern Financial Group
