Vol. 79/No. 32      September 14, 2015

Printed below is an article from the Aug. 5 Cuban daily Granma titled, “Against Forgetting; ‘Auschwitz Exhibit: Remembering the Horror’ Well Received in Matanzas.” It is a review of an exhibition of works by photographer and designer Ariel Balmaseda based on photos of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest complex of Nazi concentration and labor camps, located in Poland.

Between 1940 and 1945 the German Nazi regime headed by Adolf Hitler killed between 2.1 and 4 million people at Auschwitz, the vast majority Jews. Most of the victims were killed in gas chambers, but others died from starvation, forced labor, disease, firing squads and torturous medical “experiments.”

The exhibit, sponsored by the Decorarte cooperative, of which Balmaseda is president, opened July 20 with a program in memory of the victims of the Holocaust. It will run through Sept. 14 in the Pedro Esquerré Provincial Gallery in Matanzas.

Since the beginning of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro and the Cuban Communist Party have spoken and acted forcefully against all forms of Jew-hatred.  

The exhibit seems to have received the reception it deserved, commented specialist Damian Valdez, who emphasized the sensitivity of people who viewed it and their eagerness to broaden their knowledge of that extraordinary occurrence.

Selected by the photographer and designer Ariel Balmaseda, the exhibit has been open for several days. It will continue until September in the regional gallery Pedro Esquerré here.

Although the artist assumes at least a basic knowledge of the epoch and events of the Second World War, the historic photos he has chosen ably highlight a critical view of the concentration camps and the Jewish holocaust, one of the most atrocious crimes in modern history.

The exhibition is made up of artistic works on a grand scale, based on historic photos from that military episode. It presents iconic images of the crimes committed by the Nazis in the concentration camps.

Experts in the field say that the forceful images illustrate the thin line that divides life from death in those so-called “ghettos” or extermination camps. At the same time, they are a denunciation of cruelty and dehumanization.

Artist Ariel Balmaseda succeeded in giving the gallery the right atmosphere to convey to visitors the horrific memory of the camp at Auschwitz, sadly famous among the centers of mass extermination created by the Nazis.  
 
 
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