To Bear Witness: Stories from Auschwitz to Cincinnati. A trip to Poland

Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away. opens at Cincinnati Museum Center in October 2025. For those who have never visited the camp, it represents an unparalleled learning opportunity. 

“The people are not present… but there are traces of them still in those buildings.” —Cori Silbernagel 

What can Auschwitz still teach us today? A visit to Poland made by two of our staff, Cori Silbernagel, Director of Collections & Exhibitions, and Trinity Johnson, Director of Holocaust Programs & Museum Experiences, may help shed some light on that question. They share powerful moments from behind-the-scenes spaces like Block 10 and an unpreserved barrack, where the fingerprints of Soviet POWs remain in the brick mortar. 

80 years after liberation, the world may think it knows most everything about the space and history of Auschwitz. Cori and Trinity’s conversation shows us that we are never really done learning, and that Auschwitz still holds lessons for us today. 

Those who visit Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away. will not just see the same exhibition shown around the world. They will also get in-depth local stories of Auschwitz survivors who immigrated to Cincinnati. During WWII, the historic train station where this exhibition will be shown saw millions of American servicemen come through its doors. But there was another group of travelers whose lives would be impacted by Union Terminal. More than 1,000 Jews who survived the Holocaust immigrated to Cincinnati, arriving in the very building where the public will be able to view Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away. 

The opportunity to bring this exhibition to Cincinnati has been generously supported by Rhonda and Larry Sheakley, the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati, the Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati, the Ohio Holocaust and Genocide Memorial and Education Commission and  

H.B., E.W. & F.R. Luther Charitable Foundation, Fifth Third Bank, Trustee  

Jacob G. Schmidlapp Fund, Fifth Third Bank, Trustee  

Helen G., Henry F., Louise Tuechter Dornette Foundation, Fifth Third Bank, Trustee  

Western & Southern Financial Group  

Les and Renee Sandler  

The Kanter/Knue Family  

The Neil Bortz Family  

Rosenthal Family Foundation  

Beth and Louis Guttman 

To Bear Witness: Stories from Auschwitz to Cincinnati is part of the Cynthia & Harold Guttman Family Center for Storytelling. Special thanks to Julie and John Cohen for their support of this series. Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away. was created by Musealia in cooperation with the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.  Presented by NEON.  

Musealia https://www.musealia.net/  

Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum https://www.auschwitz.org/en/  

NEON https://www.neonglobal.com/en/ 

Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away. ticket info, additional resources for both adults and students, travel itineraries and more https://www.cincymuseum.org/auschwitz/   

Visit the Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center https://www.holocaustandhumanity.org/ 

 

 

 

 

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Episode Transcript

Jackie Congedo (00:01):
Auschwitz is a name the world can't forget. At
the Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust& Humanity Center, we've made it
part of our mission tounderstand its impact by
learning from those who survivedand came to Cincinnati. In this
limited series, we share thosestories of courage loss and the
ripple effects still felt today.

Cori Silbernagel (00:23):
...And while we were in Auschwitz I and
Auschwitz-Birkenau, we we hadthis amazing opportunity to, you
know, not only hear from thescholars and professionals that
work at the State Museum, but wealso had an opportunity to see
some,you know, some pretty an unseen
places that that are not open tothe general public. So I would

(00:49):
love to hear from you, you knowwhat? What were some of those
spaces that you know you foundmeaningful? What did you see
that you haven't seen before?

Trinity Johnson (01:04):
Yes, so that that was one of probably the
most important benefits of thistrip and learning from the
historians are these kind ofuncharted areas that no one else
has seen, or really the doorshaven't even really been open
since the camp was almostliberated, almost essentially.

(01:26):
So a few of those spaces, Iremember there was an
unpreserved barrack we visited,the kitchen that is also not
something group tours are takeninto, and a space that group
tours are taken into, and block10, where the atrocious medical
experiments on women wereperformed,

(01:48):
I hope you'll talk about theunpreserved barrack because that
was incredibleto see. Anyway,we'll get to that. But I think
for me, seeing block 10 wasreally impactful, because part
of my focus within thisscholarship has been the
experiences of women inparticular during the Holocaust,

(02:11):
and I've read so so manyaccounts and memoirs of women
who were in block 10 and part ofthe medical experiments. So to
be in that space and know thatno one else has seen that space,
seeing the sick bay where womenwere, and I'll never forget,

(02:32):
there was this moment where manyof the windows are shuttered so
that you couldn't see out, butthere were a couple On one side
in particular that did look outand the view that you saw. And I
don't know if it's intentionalor not, you can't see out any of
these other areas except forthis one wall. And what you do

(02:52):
see is the barbed wire and theguard tower. And to me, that was
a really striking moment,because you have this anonymity,
or you can hear, you know, theexecutions possibly happening,
which happened a lot outside ofblock 10. And then the one space

(03:13):
that you're able to look out isa reminder that you're a
prisoner, and the barbed wireand the Watchtower is right
there outside that window and inthat was really striking to me,
that I was standing there andseeing that, knowing the stories
that I read, and not being theonly thing those women were able

(03:34):
to see.

Cori Silbernagel (03:37):
I think you know to that, to that kind of
idea of being in in the samespaces, and, you know, imagining
those people, many of you know,many of their stories have not
been shared. I had a similarpoint in Auschwitz, Birkenau. We
were walking through anunpreserved barrack, and

(04:03):
actually you saw this first. Butas as you know, our group was
walking through, we were takingphotographs, we were listening
to our guide. Kind of give us asense of the space, what these
different rooms were used forhow, how people survived in that

(04:28):
space. You called me back. I wasa bit ahead of you. And you
said, Cori, you have to seethis.
And what you showed me is, youknow this image in my mind of it
that I really won't ever forget.
We had learned earlier on ourtour that the first barracks at

(04:48):
Auschwitz-Birkenau were built bySoviet POWs. These were soldiers
that came from all walks oflife, professions of all kind,
and they were tasked withbuilding the structures,
building the first brickstructures that were there. And

(05:09):
you pointed out to me a spotwhere the mortar in the brick
building was really sloppy. Youcould see the fingerprints, and
not, you know, not like thelines of our fingerprint that
you might leave on a window. Youcould see their fingers scraping

(05:30):
through the mortar. And I hadthat moment of just realizing
that these POWs, theseprisoners, were, you know, they
were. They were forced to dothis building, whether they had
skills or not. It was the onlyway they were going to survive

(05:53):
was to perform this labor. Andtoday, Auschwitz-Birkenau
remains as the memorial. Andalthough the people those
prisoners, are not there, mostof their artifacts are not
remaining. There's traces ofthem still in those buildings.

(06:17):
So it was, it was a significantmoment for me. And just, you
know, again, getting out of thebig the big history, this
overview history that I, that Icame for, that I wanted to know,
and and it brought it down tothe person who was standing,

(06:39):
where I was standing, buildingthat wall, smoothing that
mortar, creating this space thattoday, you know, servesas a
memorial to you know, to remindus of The legacy of of the

(06:59):
Holocaust, of this atrocity,ithumanized it in a way that,
you know, I think we aim to doin our museum, but in a
different way, in a way that,that I don't know again, I'm
having like, such a hard timearticulating it

Trinity Johnson (07:25):
as if we didn't have enough of those many days
at Auschwitz studying. You and Ialso were fortunate. We added an
extra history day to ouritinerary, but then we kind of
went our own, separate ways. AndI'm wondering if you'll share,
what did you do on your extrahistory day in Poland. You know,
we had been to Krakow, we hadbeen to Auschwitz, we'd been to

(07:49):
other camps, like Plaszow and,you know, Warsaw had, you know,
had its own Holocaust historythat was unique. So I'm so glad
that we made that extra, thatextra day out of our trip.

Cori Silbernagel (08:04):
I mean, it added so much more value while I
was while I was in, you know,Warsaw, having this whirlwind
five hour walking tour. Youweren't with me. Tell me about
where you went.

Trinity Johnson (08:20):
I went to the Sobibor killing center. So as we
know and as we teach and why weare here in "Annihilation" in
our museum, talking about thesix killing centers is really
the chapter we're sitting infront of Sobibor was one of the
killing centers and completelydismantled, and so really

(08:44):
nothing was left there. However,when I was in graduate school, I
had just come off of anarcheological excavation in
Egypt, and there was a littlepiece of me that was still
really obsessed with excavationand all of the elements that go
into that historical process.
And I remember it was when theyhad started the excavations at

(09:05):
the former site of Sobibor. Andso I used to follow all of the
field reports and knowingexactly what they were doing
mechanically as far asarcheology, but obsessed with
what are they going to findthere being nothing was left.
And so to know that now there isa museum and a memorial. There a
modern museum. It was beautiful,designed, just absolutely

(09:31):
gorgeous, the interaction. And Iknow one of the things we really
wanted was physical interactionin our space. They had it, and
it was done so beautifully andappropriately. A couple of the
things that were really strikingfor me because of what they were
able to do through thearcheological excavation is find

(09:52):
original foundational outlinesof where the gas chambers had
been and of course, remnants ofitems that people carried with
them. And so when you walk inthe entire length of the museum,
there is a artifact case thatcuts through the middle of the

(10:12):
history. So you kind of windaround it all through the
museum, learning about, kind ofthe broader history of the
Holocaust, but then specificallyto Sobibor. How does it fit into
the timeline? But you're neverout of eyesight of this artifact
case, and within it, the itemsthat - keys, wedding bands,
lipstick, toothpaste,toothbrushes, - all of the

(10:39):
things that people would havecarried with them when they were
thinking that they were beingrelocated for labor. Broken
children's toys, things likethat, which represent,
unfortunately, the victimlandscape of the people who were
sent there. And I just thoughtit was such a striking design to
always have that in youreyesight, to be reminded of the

(11:02):
people, the people who camethere. And of course, many of
those items are anonymous. Youdon't know who they belong to.
There were some that they wereable to identify, whether it was
a luggage tag or something likethat. But it was just really,
really powerful to be remindedof the humanity of in a place
that was so absolutely inhumane,and to know that that site is

(11:26):
also now part of education, thatit wasn't dismantled to the
place that it's forgotten in thehistorical record. So it was a
little bit of finally seeingsomething that I was really,
really focused on early in mystudy of Holocaust and genocide
studies, and now kind of seeingthat full circle and seeing what

(11:47):
they've done in order totransmit that history further,
was just, it was incredible.

Cori Silbernagel (11:53):
I think, you know, that's the power of
museums right to serve, as youknow, kind of this third space
of learning. And I think, youknow, artifacts, artifacts are
such powerful vehicles forstorytelling. So I love, I love
hearing about how they, youknow, ensured in their design

(12:16):
that you you could always seethose. I think that it reminds
me a little bit of the"Annihilation" exhibit in our
museum, which is designed toinclude shoes.It's designed to
look like the cages of shoesthat are at Majdanek and, you

(12:37):
know, and just in the designprocess you were there, you
know, we went back and forth of,how, how do we do it, and how do
we do it in the right way thatcontinues to humanize the
Holocaust. And, you know, wefelt, at that time, and I still
feel strongly to this, that theway to do it, the right way, was

(13:00):
to bring forward this, you knowidea of immense loss of life,
the people that are not presentare counted through their
things. And that's how I think,you know we, we approached

(13:20):
"Annihilation" as an exhibit.
And I think it sounds incrediblypowerful how they've done
something similar to that inSobibor, you know, with with
those things that remained atthe site, and again, like that
goes back to the powerfulpointof being in these places, even

(13:42):
if there is nothing that remainstoday, those stories are still
there, and museums can bringthose stories forward.

Jackie Congedo (13:57):
This is a production of the Nancy & David
Wolf Holocaust & HumanityCenter. The Center's mission is
to ensure that the lessons ofthe Holocaust inspire action
today. This series is part ofthe Cynthia & Harold Guttman
Family Center for Storytelling.
Special thanks to Julie and JohnCohen for their support of this
series. Visit us in person athistoric Union Terminal in
Cincinnati, Ohio, or onlineanytime at

(14:19):
Holocaustandhumanity.org.
Managing Producer is AnneThompson. Technical Producer is
Robert Mills, and TechnicalDirector is Josh Emerson.
Additional video production byMichael Holder. Visit Auschwitz.
Not long ago. Not far away. atUnion Terminal, beginning in
October 2025