The Cold Eye: A Powerful Exhibition of Jewish Families from the Tarnów Ghetto in Vienna

This exhibition showcases photographs taken of over a hundred Jewish families in the Tarnów Ghetto in 1942. It documents the lives of Jews before 1939, their persecution under German occupation, and highlights the fact that only 26 of the depicted individuals survived the Holocaust.

This joint exhibition by the Topography of Terror Foundation, the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, and the Natural History Museum Vienna delves into a disturbing project from late 1941 where two Viennese scholars aimed to research "typical Eastern European Jews." In March 1942, using a detached "cold eye of science," they photographed over one hundred Jewish families, comprising 565 individuals, in the German-occupied Polish city of Tarnów. The exhibition starkly contrasts the lives of Jews in Tarnów before 1939 with their brutal persecution and murder under German occupation, revealing that only 26 of the people captured in these photographs survived the Holocaust. Preserving the pictures and brief biographies of those murdered, the exhibition serves as a poignant reminder of the systematic persecution and destruction of hundreds of Jewish communities across German-occupied Poland. It highlights the "cold eye" of scientific detachment used to document lives that were soon to be extinguished, making it a critical examination of historical documentation, human suffering, and the devastating impact of the Holocaust.

Information about ticketing for this exhibition is not detailed on this page, but the museum offers an online ticket shop for general admission and other exhibitions. Visitors are directed to the Galicia Jewish Museum for exhibition details at their location in Krakow.