This book tells a story to shake the conscience of the world.

It is the catalogue of the first-ever traveling exhibition about the Auschwitz concentration camp, where 1.1 million people-mostly Jews, but also non-Jewish Poles, Roma, and others-lost their lives.

More than 280 objects and images from the exhibition are illustrated herein. Drawn from the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and other collections around the world, they range from the intimate (such as victims' family snapshots and personal belongings) to the immense (an actual surviving barrack from the Auschwitz III-Monowitz satellite camp); all are eloquent in their testimony.

An authoritative yet accessible text weaves the stories behind these artifacts into an encompassing history of Auschwitz-from a Polish town at the crossroads of Europe, to the dark center of the Holocaust, to a powerful site of remembrance.

Auschwitz: Not long ago. Not far away. is an essential volume for everyone who is interested in history and its lessons.