First of Its Kind: UJA Signs Accord with Polish Government to Provide for U.S. Tour of Holocaust Art

The United Jewish Appeal announced Wednesday that it has signed an agreement with the Polish government to provide for a two-year nationwide tour of Holocaust artifacts and other documents, under UJA auspices.

The agreement, which was a major goal of UJA national chairman Alex Grass, was achieved in association with the World Jewish Congress and provides for a tour of materials from the Auschwitz State Museum.

The exhibition is called, "Auschwitz: Crimes Against Mankind." It consists of 80 items such as suitcases, human hair, oven parts and 135 photographic panels. The exhibition was on display at the United Nations this winter in commemoration of Human Rights Day, and was seen by 70,000 persons.

The exhibition, which was organized in Poland by the Auschwitz State Museum and the International Auschwitz Committee, tells the tragic story of the Auschwitz death camp in Poland from 1940 until its liberation by Allied troops in 1945. The agreement, however, represents two further advances in the ongoing UJA effort to ensure that the realities of the Holocaust are never forgotten so as to prevent the possibility of a recurrence. "Unlike the exhibition as displayed at the UN," Grass said, "the display from now on will be accompanied by a catalog completely revised for us in which the Polish government recognizes the centrality of the Jewish tragedy in the Holocaust. That is, the Polish government agrees that while others died in the Holocaust, it was an organized, methodical — let me add, evil — program to kill all the Jews in Europe. Six million Jews died including one million children only for the fact that they were Jewish.

"Second, this exhibition will be brought to communities across the U.S., and placed in museums and other public areas so that all Americans, Jews and non-Jews especially those too young to remember the Holocaust, will know it really happened, that it was horrific — and that it could happen again."

"By sponsoring this exhibition," Grass added, "we are enabling people who cannot visit Yad Vashem in Jerusalem or the site of Auschwitz in Poland to directly experience the reality and impact of a concentration camp whose very name has become synonymous with Nazi crimes and Jewish suffering."

Negotiations that led to the agreement were supported by the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors, the New York Jewish Community Relations Council and other groups. The UN Center for Human Rights, which co-sponsored the exhibition earlier this year, will continue as sponsor while it is on tour.

UJA will provide, in addition to the fully revised catalog, educational and other materials to help Americans understand what Grass called "a fundamentally incomprehensible scheme to eliminate the Jewish people."

The exhibition will be made available by the UJA free of charge, Grass said. The display requires 3,150 square feet, or about two-thirds the size of a regulation basketball court. Further information may be obtained from Donna Lee Goldberg, Special Projects, United Jewish Appeal, 99 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10016, (212) 818-9100, ext. 379.