{"id":1466,"date":"2023-06-09T10:28:18","date_gmt":"2023-06-09T15:28:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thelastalbum.org\/content\/?p=1466"},"modified":"2025-08-18T09:09:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T14:09:17","slug":"march-2023-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelastalbum.org\/content\/march-2023-update\/","title":{"rendered":"March 2023 Update: Ann with creators of the monumental exhibit “Auschwitz – Not Long Ago, Not Far Away” at the Reagan Presidential Library, and Art Paikowsky"},"content":{"rendered":"

March 2023<\/p>\n

Being at the Reagan Presidential Library premiere of the monumental exhibit, \u2018Auschwitz\u2014Not Long Ago, Not Far Away\u2019 was not only a tremendous honor, but also a chance to reconnect with colleagues who have become friends over the years.<\/p>\n

Here is Robert Jan van Pelt, the Chief Curator of the Exhibit, pointing out his father\u2019s star to Piotr Cywinski, the Director of State Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Caption: Robert Jan on right, Piotr on left<\/p><\/div>\n

Luis Ferreiro (left) is the Head of Musealia, which is the organization that commissioned the Auschwitz exhibition He resides in San Sebastion, Spain. Robert Jan van Pelt, the chief curator of the exhibit, resides in Canada, where he is an architectural historian at the University of Waterloo. He is one of the world\u2019s foremost experts on Auschwitz. Among other works, he co-authored the award-
\nwinning book, Auschwitz 1270-the Present (with Professor Deborah Dwork).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

But most exciting of all, was the reunion with Art Paikowsky, currently of Arizona, but formerly from Philadelphia, where he organized one of the first ever missions to Eastern Europe, while it was still under Communist control. As a participant\u2014but one who had never been on a group tour, I had no idea how crucial it was to stay with the group. Because of the prestige of most of the participants of the group, Auschwitz \u2014which was closed to the public when we arrived\u2014was kept open just for our small group. Unfortunately, I became separated from the group and in a locked Auschwitz\u2014running trying to find anyone alive\u2014I discovered the photos that became the genesis of Eyes from the
\nAshes Educational Foundation. <\/p>\n

Art attended the premiere and later told me that his part in this story was one of the proudest things he had done in his life (This is saying quite a lot, considering all the buildings he secured funds to get built, and the millions of dollars he raised for the Birthright program.).<\/p>\n

\"\"

Art Paikowsky and Ann, at the Reagan Library<\/p><\/div>\n

The exhibit features photos from our book, arranged in this way: The visitor comes around a corner and walks directly into our photos, titled \u201cThe Lost World of the Victims\u201d. Perpendicular to our photos are images of the Nazi murderers, shown relaxing and frolicking at Auschwitz. It is a most dramatic arrangement!<\/p>\n

Insert Photo 4: Ann at the exhibit \u201c

\"\"

The Lost World of the Victims\u201d\u2014featuring
photographs from The Last Album: Eyes from the Ashes of Auschwitz-Birkenau.<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

\"\"

This wall, perpendicular to our photos, is simply labeled:
\u201cThe World of the Perpetrators\u201d. I have chosen NOT to feature photos of the murderers here, only the photos of the Jews BEFORE they became victims.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

March 2023 Being at the Reagan Presidential Library premiere of the monumental exhibit, \u2018Auschwitz\u2014Not Long Ago, Not Far Away\u2019 was not only a tremendous honor, but also a chance to reconnect with colleagues who have become friends over the years. Here is Robert Jan van Pelt, the Chief Curator of the Exhibit, pointing out his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7778,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fromann"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelastalbum.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelastalbum.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelastalbum.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelastalbum.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7778"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelastalbum.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1466"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thelastalbum.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1704,"href":"https:\/\/thelastalbum.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1466\/revisions\/1704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelastalbum.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelastalbum.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelastalbum.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}