Then and Now Credits

This exhibit contrasts contemporary photographs of these two camps, with Auschwitz Museum survivor paintings of what they were like 1940-45 as remembered by artist-survivors.

What Alan Jacobs created with Then and Now is the literal landscape of those memories. It bridges the subjective human trauma recorded by survivor-artists (then) with the stark, silent physical reality captured by Alan (now).

Then and Now Exhibit

• Creators: Artist Survivors and Alan Jacobs
• Project Background and Team
• Then and Now Copyright

Part 1: Auschwitz I & Birkenau | Part 2:  Auschwitz Prisoner Life | Part 3:  Auschwitz Barracks

Artist Survivor Paintings in Then and Now

In his first visit to Auschwitz, Alan Jacobs got reproductions from the Auschwitz Museum; the art penetrated his creative mind, and he kept exploring. After years of related work and many more trips, Jacobs, and his son Jesse, returned to the camps in 1996 to find and photograph the identical scenes depicted in the art. Krysia Jacobs then devised a way to present them as you see here. They are the result of work over a 24 year period.

Mieczysław Kościelniak

Arrested in 1941 and sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp. He drew about 300 paintings depicting the everyday life of prisoners.  His work is currently displayed in the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. 

During his imprisonment, he met Maximilian Kolbe, a Catholic priest murdered in Auschwitz and canonized in 1982.

Jerzy Potrzebowski 

Polish painter, underground activist during  World War II, prisoner of Auschwitz. He later participated in exhibitions in Warsaw, Krakow, Poznań, and Katowice. 

---

Janina Tollik

At Auschwitz, worked in the penal company. There she began sketching various scenes from camp life. She destroyed many of the works, believing that no one needed them.

---

Władysław Siwek

In October 1940 he was imprisoned in Auschwitz, receiving camp number 5826.

Alongside projects commissioned by the SS, he risked his life to create portraits of fellow prisoners, completing about two thousand in Auschwitz. Many of these portraits were sent home by the prisoners to their families.

alan jacobs

Then and Now photos by Alan Jacobs.

This exhibition was prepared with paintings by survivors, and are part of the collections at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Oswiecim, Poland. All artist reproductions courtesy of Auschwitz Museum Archive.

Photographs by Alan Jacobs taken in Auschwitz and Birkenau in the years 1996-2004.

© 1996, 2004 Alan Jacobs all rights reserved

Please contact us with questions related to this exhibit.

Then and Now Project Background

Much of the art was created soon after their liberation. Their art is the only visual record of day-to-day existence in Auschwitz/Birkenau. In 1979, The Auschwitz Museum Archive reproduced selected pieces of art and sent them to writer/photographer Alan Jacobs, who first visited that same year.

After years of related work and many more trips, Jacobs, and his son Jesse, returned to the camps in 1996 to find and photograph the identical scenes depicted in the art. Alan returned in 2004 for the Virtual Tour of Auschwitz photos and video exhibit. Krysia Jacobs devised a way to present them. They are the result of work over a 24 year period.