The series consists of four designs printed on metal plates, an eight-metre-long grey mirror, and reproductions of four photographs that were taken in 1944 by members of the Sonderkommando near the gas chamber and Crematorium 5 at Birkenau.
These four photographs, taken secretly by Sonderkommando prisoners, who were forced to dispose of gas chamber victims, are regarded as the only photographic records of the Holocaust to document the murder and burning of corpses of Jews at the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp.
The works will be displayed on the grounds of the International Youth Meeting Centre in Oświęcim in a recently built exhibition centre, called Gerhard Richter Exhibition House, about 4 kilometres from the Birkenau site.
The centre's construction was made possible by a donation from German automaker Volkswagen.
Born in 1932 in Dresden, Richter is an internationally acclaimed artist. In his works, he addresses issues such as identity and collective memory, particularly in the context of post-World War II Germany.
(mk/gs)
