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“Auschwitz Exhibit” at the UN
by Yehudit Shendar
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Zinovii Tolkatchev (1903-1977), The Savior, 1945,
pencil on paper
Gift of Anel Tolkatcheva and Ilya Tolkatchev, Kiev. Collection
of the Yad Vashem Art Museum |
On 24 January, an exhibit on the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination
camp will open in the lobby of the United Nations Headquarters in
New York, marking the 60th anniversary of the
liberation of the camp.
The exhibit, entitled “Auschwitz: The Depth of the Abyss,”
will be displayed for six weeks, and comprises two main
sections: a selection of photos from the Auschwitz Album;
and sketches by Zinovii Tolkatchev, drawn at the time of the
liberation of the Majdanek and Auschwitz camps.
The Auschwitz Album is unique.
Using more than 200 photos, it documents the arrival and
processing of an entire transport of Jews from Carpatho-Ruthenia
(a region annexed in 1939 to Hungary from Czechoslovakia) at
Auschwitz-Birkenau in May 1944. These rare photos provide both
moving and painful documentation of the entire process—arrival,
selektion, confiscation of property and preparation for the
murder—except for the gassing itself. Incredibly, the album
eventually came into the possession of one of the few survivors
from that very same transport, Lili Jacob. When Lili opened the
album, to her astonishment she recognized members of her community
who had been sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau, including her rabbi, many
relatives—and herself. In August 1980, Lili Jacob donated the
original album to Yad Vashem.
Private Zinovii Tolkatchev was born in 1903 in the town of
Shchedrin in Belorussia. Before WWII, Tolkatchev was appointed
professor at the Institute of Fine Arts in Kiev. In 1944, as the
official artist for the Red Army, Tolkatchev was present at
Majdanek shortly after the camp was liberated (July 1944). Soon
afterwards he joined the troops that arrived at Auschwitz (January
1945). During this period, Tolkatchev produced the “Majdanek,”
“Auschwitz” and “The Flowers of Auschwitz” series of drawings.
Immediately after the war, Tolkatchev’s drawings were published as
albums and exhibited extensively throughout Poland, winning wide
public acclaim. The “Auschwitz” series
was donated to Yad Vashem in February 2002, by his two children
Anel Tolkatcheva and Ilya Tolkatchev (Kiev).
The Auschwitz Album and some of Tolkatchev’s drawings will
be part of the display in the new Holocaust History Museum at Yad
Vashem, due to open in March 2005. The exhibit at the UN was
curated by the Museums Division of Yad Vashem, in cooperation with
the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and will be opened by UN
Secretary General Kofi Annan, Israel’s Foreign Minister Silvan
Shalom, Nobel Laureate Professor Elie Wiesel and Chairman of the
Yad Vashem Directorate Avner Shalev.
The author is Deputy Director and Senior Art Curator in the
Museums Division.
Copyright ©2004 Yad Vashem The Holocaust
Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority |
