It was Hitler’s birthday. His birthday present — 1000 young Jews herded into cattle cars, bound for the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. Among them were 21 year old Eva Brewster and her mother. They were to be two of only seven from that transport who survived the Second World War.
Were they the lucky ones? Two years of starvation, hard labour, beatings, serious illness and degradation followed as around them almost 1.5 million people were killed by Nazi hands.
25 years after the war Eva Brewster settled in southern Alberta. She dedicated her life to exposing the horrors of the Holocaust [Shoah] so that such genocide would never happen again.
Her award-winning book, Vanished in Darkness, and this exhibit, continue her commitment.
Content
3 replicated Auschwitz artifacts
5 audio stations, 1 DVD, computer interactive
30 story panels divided into several sections including pre-war, life at Auschwitz, and post-war.
Sample of exhibit panels follows
Sources
Photography, artifacts and audio/visual materials for the exhibit were sourced from:
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, USA www.ushmm.org
Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre, Canada www.mhmc.ca
Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum, Oswiecim, Poland www.auschwitz-muzeum.oswiecim.pl
BBC www.bbc.co.uk
Galt Museum & Archives www.galtmuseum.com
Auschwitz: The Eva Brewster Story, to Receive AMA Award
2007 Alberta Museums Association Programming: Exhibits Award
August 16, 2007
The Galt Museum & Archives has learned that the Auschwitz: The Eva Brewster Story exhibit will be awarded the 2007 Alberta Museums Association Programming: Exhibits Award at the AMA Annual Awards Gala on September 22 in Red Deer.
“We are extremely pleased with this significant provincial recognition of the work of the Galt,” says Susan Burrows-Johnson, CEO/Executive Director, “and congratulate the staff and volunteers involved with this important exhibit.”
Auschwitz survivor Eva Brewster settled in southern Alberta 25 years after the war. She dedicated her life to exposing the horrors of the Holocaust [Shoah] so that such genocide would never happen again; she visited schools, was a newspaper columnist and authored several books. Her award-winning book Vanished in Darkness was the basis of Auschwitz: The Eva Brewster Story produced by the Galt Museum & Archives where it was shown from January 27 to April 29, 2007.
Exhibit curator Ron Ulrich, now Executive Director at the Jewish Museum & Archives of BC in Vancouver, is pleased. “This award acknowledges the support and assistance by the international Holocaust museum community, southern Alberta’s Jewish and Holocaust survivor community and Eva’s family, and also recognizes the exhibit team for the effectiveness of how they have told this difficult story.
“Most of all, this award recognizes Eva Brewster, her Holocaust survival and the merit of telling her story to future generations,” says Ulrich. “With this exhibit travelling across Canada, the legacy of her own resolve to speak out against genocide in the world can continue. It is our hope that those viewing the exhibit will speak out or take action against similar atrocities, like Darfur.”
To date, the exhibit has been booked by the Moose Jaw Museum in Saskatchewan [September 23 - December 8, 2007], the Red Deer Museum [January 12 - March 9, 2008] and the Medicine Hat Esplanade in Alberta [April 2 - June 29, 2008].Additional exhibit venues are currently under negotiation.