Travelling Auschwitz exhibition opens in Madrid

MADRID, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- Friday sees the local opening of an exhibition containing hundreds of objects from the Nazi extermination camp of Auschwitz, where over a million Jews, Gypsies and others were murdered during the Second World War.

The exhibition will remain in Madrid until June and the Spanish capital is the first stop on a journey for the exhibition which will travel to cities in Europe, America, Asia and Oceania.

Named "Auschwitz: Not far away...not long ago," visitors will be able to see both the large and the human scale of the crimes committed in the camp, with exhibits ranging from a railway wagon used to transport victims to the camp and a stretch of the electrified fence designed to ensure nobody escaped, to personal images, such as drawings, which survived after being hidden in a bottle, or a young child's tiny shoes.

There is even a gas mask and a box containing canisters of the Zyklon B gas used in the infamous gas chambers, along with a quote from a senior camp commander, Rudolf Hoess in which he says the first gassing of people: "didn't really sink into my mind."

Visitors are also able to see how the camp doctor Josef Mengele picked out the victims, for the brutal experiments he carried out and there is also an operating table, he may have used in those experiments for the brave hearted to view. Enditem