Role of Sounds in “The Primer: Children in Majdanek Camp” Exhibition at Majdanek State Museum

Abstract

“The Primer: Children in Majdanek Camp” is an educational exhibition devoted to the pre-war and camp fate of Jewish, Polish and Belarusian children. The exhibition is located in barrack 53 of KL Majdanek. The exhibition can be characterized as a scenographic, photographic and sound installation. The cacophony of sounds made by children playing during school breaks, their voices and the testimony of adult prisoners overlap. This overlap represents the palimpsest structure of time made of sounds. The sound aspect of the exhibition plays a key role in the reception of the exhibition. The time before the war is symbolized by the cheerful sounds of children. The time spent in the camp is not represented by the terrifying sounds of crying or screaming; it is replaced by a chorus of voices testifying to past events and is accompanied by the quiet sounds of a lullaby. Attention is drawn to the elements of the audiosphere of the exhibition – they illustrate children’s camp experiences, abandoning historical descriptions and boards, and using only eyewitness accounts and deeply symbolic objects. The exhibition is an interesting case of using relatively simple, yet strongly influencing the imagination of visitors, affective tools. Thanks to this, it was possible to avoid trivialization and oversimplification, as well as the information glut and didacticism known from conventional museums.