Auschwitz: Not Long Ago, Not Far Away. Ronald Reagan Presidential Library

Abstract

Review| November 01 2023 Auschwitz: Not Long Ago, Not Far Away. Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Auschwitz: Not Long Ago, Not Far Away. Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, Simi Valley, California. March 24, 2023–Ongoing. https://www.reaganfoundation.org/library-museum/special-exhibits/auschwitz-exhibition/. Brian J Griffith Brian J Griffith California State University, Fresno Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar The Public Historian (2023) 45 (4): 115–122. https://doi.org/10.1525/tph.2023.45.4.115 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Brian J Griffith; Auschwitz: Not Long Ago, Not Far Away. Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. The Public Historian 1 November 2023; 45 (4): 115–122. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/tph.2023.45.4.115 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentThe Public Historian Search The unspeakable horrors of German Nazism, antisemitism, and the labor and death camp system during World War II (WWII), are simultaneously “Not Long Ago” and “Not Far Away,” the bi-line of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum (RRPLM)’s ongoing Auschwitz exhibition contends. Although the proximity of WWII and the Holocaust continues to weigh heavily upon our contemporary historical consciousness, it is the latter assertion—the unprecedented crimes of the Holocaust are “Not Far Away”—which caught my eye as I repeatedly passed by the exhibition’s promotional billboards along California’s Highway 118 in Ventura County, where the RRPLM is located. Why, I wondered, did this particular institution consider the horrors of interwar European ultra-nationalism, racially motivated violence, and, worse still, organized mass murder to be possibilities on our collective horizon? And what did the RRPLM, moreover, have anything to do with the historical memory surrounding Auschwitz? These were the guiding questions which... You do not currently have access to this content.