Why the Auschwitz sign is irreplaceable

Both the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington and Yad Vashem in Jerusalem tell the story in powerful and sophisticated ways, leaving the visitor shaken and emotionally distraught.

In contrast, the Auschwitz State Museum encompasses a collection of dated national pavilions housed in the camp’s stone barracks. Designed in the 1950s, it is a poor pedagogic instrument in desperate need of updating.

But all this is really secondary. The visitor to Auschwitz knows he is walking along that same platform where half a century ago Dr Mengele was directing victims to the gas chambers. He is looking at the same electrified fence that had imprisoned countless slave labourers.