The Dachau Album:
An Interfaith Holocaust Program
Founding Sponsor
Beatrice Cummings Mayer
This unique document of Holocaust art and history must be made available to the global community. To effectively generate maximum visibility and tell the unique stories inherent in this album, we have created a comprehensive plan to educate the world about this significant discovery.
EXHIBITIONS
Pre-exhibition Preparation
Produce high-resolution reproductions of the album, retain professionals to write the artistic and socio-historic commentaries and select a museum design architect to create the exhibitions.
Master Exhibition
The Dachau Album will be exhibited at major museums and venues around the world that will ensure maximum visibility. Discussions are under way to open the Master Exhibition at the Dachau Memorial and Archives followed by exhibitions in the Library of Congress, The Vatican, Warsaw, Jerusalem, New York, Washington DC, and Los Angeles at venues such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Smithsonian Institute and the Museum of Tolerance at the Simon Wiesenthal Plaza.
Traveling Exhibition
Traveling exhibitions, with displays of the album and its contents, telling the stories surrounding the Dachau Album will be created for smaller venues such as Holocaust Museums, Jewish Federations, Catholic Dioceses, Universities and Libraries.
EDUCATION
The discovery of this multi-faceted Holocaust artifact allows a rare opportunity for Holocaust research and the development of Holocaust academic curricula. These materials will examine the Holocaust experience from a historical, cultural and artistic perspective. The uniqueness of the Dachau Album will effectively serve to renew and refresh the educational materials being used to teach the Holocaust and can be structured in such a way to be appropriate for all academic levels.
MEDIA
Documentary Series / Film
The Dachau Album, its contents and the world-wide search for answers will be depicted through a Documentary television series or film.
The creation and incredible journey of this album, the life of the adolescent Jewish survivor for whom it was made and the tale of the adult Roman Catholic Artist will serve as the basis for this project.
The survivor came to America after the war, completed his education, married and had a family, and realized a successful career in the aeronautics industry. Burdened by the imminent death of his wife from brain cancer and the horrors of his past, he tragically, took his own life on Thanksgiving Day, 1972.
On the other side of the equation is the tragic story of a young Catholic Polish artist arrested in
1939 as a political prisoner, who arrives in Dachau in 1941. He survives only to become penniless
and desperate. He eventually dies, destitute, near Heresford, England in 1989. He leaves behind a
series of 30 masterful illustrations depicting a narrative of life and death in Dachau.
As the mysteries of the Album continue to be investigated, this Documentary will follow the many events and personalities that bring this Album into the public arena.
Link to Documentary Film Treatment
Published Materials
It is already clear that this album presents a visually compelling documentation of life in Dachau and therefore it is of utmost importance to publish materials that recreate, examine and describe its contents. These materials will include editorial contributions from Holocaust Scholars and Art Experts. Materials such as these will be distributed to educational institutions, cultural centers, museums and to the general public directly.
To honor his memory, the Arnold Unger Foundation for Remembrance, Inc. has been established to further the cause of Holocaust education and awareness worldwide.