Documentation Centre Nazi Party Rally Grounds

Railway Year 2010 - "The Track"

An exhibition organised by the Documentation Centre Nazi Party Rally Grounds and the Panstwowe Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau

19 May to 31 October, 2010

As its official contribution to the 175th anniversary of railways in Germany, the Documentation Centre Nazi Party Rally Grounds will present the exhibition "The Track", starting in may 2010. The show is intended to focus attention on the darkest chapter of German railway history. The project will be organised in a unique first co-operation with the Memorial Site Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland.

The National Socialists' war of extermination in the east enabled them to implement their murderous racist policies, far away from the German Reich's territory, in factory-like extermination sites made accessible by the railway system. Today, the tracks at the ramp of the concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, where trains brought hundred thousands of people to the final station of their lives, are seen as the symbol for the National Socialists' extermination policy.

Nuremberg and Auschwitz - the city where, in 1935, the "Race Laws" were adopted, and the topographic symbol for the Holocaust - are connected via a rail network carrying deportation trains from nearly all over Europe. They are the starting and end points for remembrance. One metaphor for this is going to be a railway track installation in the Documentation Centre, with imaginary rail tracks leading directly to a projected image of the entrance gate of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Today, these contemporary pictures in direct relay from the Polish memorial site reduce this distance which during the "Third Reich", helped cover up mass murder.

In addition to the installation, the railways' role in the Holocaust will be explained in selected exhibition units. A specially provided accompanying programme of films, lectures, discussions and guided tours will supplement the installation. Another important element of this German-Polish co-operation is a scheduled exchange of experts and opinion formers to promote a more intensive joint approach to remembrance.

For further information please see:
www.the-track-nuremberg.de
<http://www.the-track-nuremberg.de>

For exhibitions in German, please see the German website.

Exhibitions
<http://www.museen.nuernberg.de/dokuzentrum/ausstellungen.html>