Auschwitz

This model of Auschwitz concentration camp was commissioned for the Holocaust Exhibition at the Imperial War Museum London. It was on permanent display from 1999 to 2021. The museum’s Holocaust Gallery is now closed for renovation.

Designed by Gerry Judah, the model represents the arrival and dispersal of a trainload of over 6,000 Jews from the Berehovo ghetto in June 1944. Painstakingly accurate, the miniature scene takes its reference from one of the very few remaining photographic records of the Auschwitz- Birkenau concentration camp. The model, measuring 12 metres long by 2 metres wide, was constructed mainly in plaster of Paris and painted completely in white, giving it a stark, silent monolithic quality. It took Ben over a year to complete the project with the assistance of two other model makers.