Auschwitz’s Former Kitchen Transformed into Holocaust Art Memorial

The main gate of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, with the inscription "Work Makes You Free." (Shutterstock) (Shutterstock)

Museum officials envision a contemplative space where nearly two million annual visitors can grasp the full spectrum of camp experiences through 4,000 pieces of artwork.

By Jewish Breaking News

Near the infamous ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ gate at Auschwitz stands a massive building where the Nazi death machine once measured survival in grams of bread.

Silent for decades, Auschwitz’s former kitchen will soon become the keeper of Holocaust artistic legacy as the camp prepares to mark its 80th anniversary of liberation in January.

An international design competition will determine the exhibition’s final form, guided by former prisoners, historians, curators, and Holocaust research specialists.

Museum officials envision a contemplative space where nearly two million annual visitors can grasp the full spectrum of camp experiences through 4,000 pieces of artwork.

Some pieces were sketched in secret, their creation a death-defying act of resistance. Others came from inmate artists forced by SS officers to produce portraits and landscapes for Nazi families back in Germany.

Many survivors also created works after liberation, processing their trauma through paint and pencil.

“The works of art constitute a unique collection that provides direct testimony of people doomed to survive in the worst of circumstances. In a world increasingly saturated with visual culture, this collection is gaining importance,” said Auschwitz Museum Director Piotr Cywiński.

“Along with the testimonies of former prisoners and camp remains, these images are an essential element to fully understand the tragedy of humanity during the Holocaust.”

Meanwhile, very few Auschwitz survivors remain to tell their stories firsthand. At the last major commemoration 5 years ago, barely 200 could make the journey.

Gone now is Kazimierz Albin, who at 96 was the final living witness from the first Polish transport. Dario Gabbai lived until 97, the last survivor of the Sonderkommando units forced to work in the gas chambers.

When Edward Paczkowski died at 91, the Roma community lost their longest-surviving Auschwitz prisoner.

“This channel of communication, meetings with former Auschwitz prisoners, is coming to an end. Nevertheless, the emotions of the victims are clearly present in their artwork,” says Cywiński.

“The paintings convey coldness, hunger and death. They speak in every language, to every person. It is a documentation of Nazi terror, but also a story of hope and the strength of humanity, expressed through art in defiance of camp conditions that are incomprehensible today.”