Exhibit Opening: The Last Album

Exhibit: The Last Album: Eyes from the Ashes of Auschwitz-Birkenau

Opens: Friday, May 6th at 5:30 PM

Location: DIVA 280 W. Broadway

While on a group tour of Auschwitz as part of a diplomatic mission to Poland in 1986, Dr. Ann Weiss, curator of the exhibit and author of the book “The Last Album: Eyes from the Ashes of Auschwitz-Birkenau, was let into see an archive of family photos brought to the camp by victims of the Nazis. 

Untouched and unseen since the liberation of the death camp in 1945, these poignant images immediately overwhelmed her. "I could not speak. I could barely breathe," she writes. "The familiar refrain ‘six million’ translated into six million times the individual, six million times Naftali and Raizele and Tzipohorah and Emanuel. Six million pairs of eyes." There before her were over 2,000 personal photographs confiscated from families and individuals.

The Downtown Initiative for the Visual Arts (DIVA) is pleased to bring this powerful exhibit of cherished personal photographs to Eugene. These are the memories of individuals and families that were carefully packed amongst their belongings and taken with them to the Auschwitz and Birkenau death camps.

This exhibit has toured extensively in the US, but has never been seen in the Pacific Northwest. The Eugene exhibit will include 75 photographs and maps curated personally by Ann Weiss. Dr. Weiss will travel with the exhibit from Atlanta, where it is currently on view, to give presentations about the photographs and her work in preserving these images. In addition, her film Eyes From the Ashes, based on her discovery and preservation of these photos, will be shown during the exhibit.

The exhibit will be on view through May and has been made possible by the generous support of local organizations, businesses, and individuals. We expect visitors from throughout the Pacific Northwest to visit this unique show. Read more.