The Nazis built the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp outside the town of Oswiecim, a small town on the border between Galicia and Silesia that on the eve of World War II had a majority Jewish population.
To mark today’s International Holocaust Remembrance Day — the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz in 1945 — the Auschwitz Jewish Center in Oswiecim has launched an online exhibition in association with Google on the 400-year Jewish history of the town.
It is called Oshpitzin — the Yiddish name for the town — and grows out of several other Oshpitzen projects carried out by the Center. These include a museum exhibition at the Auschwitz Jewish Center (whose complex includes the only surviving synagogue in Oswiecim), a tourism app using augmented reality, a book about Oshpitzin, and an Oshpitzin web site. The new exhibition is available on Google Arts & Culture platform
Tomasz Kuncewicz, Director of the Auschwitz Jewish Center, said:
This new exhibit is an important milestone in reaching out to new audiences with the local Jewish history so much overshadowed by the tragedy of Auschwitz and the Holocaust. We are proud that Google joined us in our mission to preserve the memory of Jews who lived in the Polish town of Oświęcim, before it became Auschwitz.
Click here to access the online exhibition
1 comment on “Poland: New online exhibit on history of Jewish Oswiecim (Auschwitz)”
That is a fabulous exhibit.