Speaking Memories – The Last Witnesses of the Holocaust is an exhibition dedicated to those who were there. Those who have personal memories and experience from the Holocaust. Those who survived.

Presenting portraits and testimonies, the exhibition focuses on survivors who rebuilt their lives in Sweden after the Holocaust. It also presents an interactive installation – Dimensions in Testimony – where audience members can have conversations with pre-recorded video images of Holocaust survivors, Pinchas Gutter and Eva Schloss.

The exhibition provides access to USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive, which contains 55,000 testimonies from survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust and other genocides. In addition, authentic objects borrowed from the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum will be on display. All of the above are presented for the first time in Sweden.

One part of the exhibition is dedicated to life in Sweden directly after the Holocaust, presenting personal stories and artifacts found in the camp Lovö, where survivors were placed upon their arrival to Sweden after World War II.

Speaking Memories includes the publication of a book with portraits, testimonies and essays connected to the exhibition. It also includes workshops for high-school students and educators, as well as culture programs – seminars and film-screenings, which will be held throughout the exhibition period.

Speaking Memories is co-realized by The Swedish History Museum and Jewish Culture in Sweden in cooperation with USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education, and Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.

The exhibition was originated in the project Speaking Memories that was initiated by Jewish Culture in Sweden in 2015. The other partners in the project are Paideia – The European Institute for Jewish studies in Sweden, The Association of Holocaust Survivors in Sweden, The Living History Forum and Adat Jeschurun Synagogue.

The portraits presented at the exhibition were taken by Karl Gabor.