Auschwitz diorama : getting started/need feedback

Modeling Subjects Dioramas
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My father survived Auschwitz, 1941-1945. He died last year. Since then, I’ve been working on building a diorama of Auschwitz, for his memory and to teach my children. I need feedback on how I can approach this without looking tasteless and amateur. All comments welcome.

I’m building a crematorium from a dairy/creamery HO scale train model. For the interior, I’m lighting it with a lamp that shines on a closed crematorium oven–nothing else. Below the crematorium, there will be two long rooms, made of balsa and painted concrete gray. One will be the gas chamber, with purple Zyklon B stains on the walls, but no dead bodies. The other room will be the undressing room, painted concrete gray, with 1/72 scale civilians and Nazis in various poses.

The prisoners barracks and the camp administration building (3 buildings in all) are converted Novel Iron Works buildings. Interiors will show the barracks bunks (balsa wood) and SS offices filled with SS posters, prisoner luggage, and SS officers milling about. Guard towers are made from HO scale Atlas elevated switch towers, altered to look like the real thing. The whole area will be surrounded by the infamous “triple fence” of barbed wire. The fenceline will be lighted by street lights. I chose all buildings with extreme care to closely duplicate the buildings at Auschwitz.

The real action/horror takes place outside the buildings. One vignette will be Nazis and prisoners in an execution line. One vignette will be a discipline line, with a half-naked prisoner being whipped by Nazis as others are forced to watch. One vignette will be a hanging. One vignette will be the burning of corpses in an outdor cremation pit. One vignette will be Dr. Mengele (SS doctor and executioner) making a “selektion” to send civilians to their deaths. A cattle car railroad boxcar spilling dead bodies and a German Army truck, also spilling dead bodies, will be in the back area of the diorama. The front of the diorama will be a slightly fanciful depiction of Russian Army infantry fighting retreating Germans on the day of liberation, January 26, 1945. The background painting will be of the rest of the camp and Auschwitz II-Birkenau in the distant background.

Tell me how far I should go with this nightmare. I was filled with sadness at times, making these horrid vignettes and imagining what my father went through. My goal is to make something good enough to be displayed at the local high school, or even the Holocaust Museum in Washington, from which I was inspired.

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I’m sure this is a subject that nobody wants to touch.I’ll go out on a limb and say to just browse the internet or do some reading.There are planty of books on the Holocaust.Not to mention the Nazis were fanatical about photo-documenting everything.You could also just build the entrance building to Auschwitz II.Knowing it’s history gives it an absolutely evil look.

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I like the fact that you are willing to do such a diorama. Something like this should be done, if only to remind others of what really happened, and educate those who have yet to learn. Some ideas I feel would work are leave off the execution line and the hanging, but leave in the punishment scene. Also, unless they did outdoor burnings, leave that off too. I like the idea of Dr. Megele making his “selektion” and for the back, have the bodies from the train being loaded into the truck. One more idea: if you saw “Schindler’s List” there’s a scene where one of the guards is shooting a woman for no apparent reason. Maybe that can also be depicted to show the cruelty and lack of feeling the Nazis had.

That’s my two cents. I hope nobody flames you for your bavery in depicting something that nobody should forget.

God Bless to your father for his bravery and fortitude in enduring that horror, and to you as well for honoring his memory in such a poignant and touching way.

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Modeling is about preserving the past-no matter why you do it, you are ultimately contributing to that goal. We all have made the germans, the americans, the brits etc, we all read the magazines with the occupied towns; shatterered trees and historical footnotes. But what you are doing here(i hope it works) is groundbreaking. I have read quite a few people flamed on this subject in these forums-because we are afraid of what people will think. We are so scared of what you plan to do(i don’t doubt you are scared too of what reactions might be, or whether you can have the mental capacity to complete this project) of what really happened, and that it was REAL. It was not a picture, it was not a horror story, not a shocking film, but real death, real torture, real horror. Steven King said we are scared of the door in horror stories, but what lies beyond is not as bad as we imagined. Just remember that, or tell people something to that effect to people who don’t like what you are doing. God bless you on your ‘quest’ for a memorial, that has a face to the horror, not anonymity such as the holocaust memorial in germany, or the scary truth in washington dc, but a 3D still life of the sadness. Good luck and may bravery and strenght go with you.

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Thanks for the kind and thoughtful replies. I will post pictures as the progress progresses under the moniker “Auschwitz diorama.” Thanks again.

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I’ll be looking forward to seeing those pics. Stay the course, stay strong, and may God guide your hand.

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I’m not sure I’m gettiing this…the combat scene in the front…is that supposed to be part of the overall scene? If so, having Mengele and much of the rest of the action doesn’t seem to blend. Also, IIRC, the camps were abandoned before being overtaken.

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Before making plans to display it, I’d check with the school and contact the museum to see if they’d be interested. It’s such a sensitive subject, anyone considering displaying it would want to know beforehand the credentials of the artist.

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i think the defining thing about this dio would be the figs, how they look, and how you paint them, both the living and the dead. thats gonna be your most telling aspect

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You’re to be commended for attempting this diorama. A subject too long neglected by us modelers, IMHO.

Some thoughts:

(1) If you’re going to have a selection vignette, you may want to consider including the camp orchestra.

(2) I believe ajlafleche is correct about the camps being abandoned before the arrival of the Red Army.

(3) It’s a LONG way from the selection area to each of the gas chambers. Even at 1/72 your diorama is going to be several feet long, and will, I suspect, require more than 3 administative buildings. especially if you’re going to include some towers. That would require you to model the entire railroad platform area, which is something like three-quarters of a mile long (maybe longer - can’t recall). This won’t be impossible to model, but will require some careful planning, and perhaps more work than you’d like.

(4) Don’t forget that much of the work in Auschwitz was performed by kapos, not by the SS. You’ll want to keep the proportion of SS to kapos pretty low.

Good luck. I look forward to seeing your photos.

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Before you get too into construction,do some serious research.This type of project demands it.

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“Auschwitz Death Camp, Oswieciem, Poland, January 1945”

Thank you for your awesome ideas and feedback! I’m taking it all into deep consideration. Here’s how my diorama is going so far:

It will be 60" long and 24" deep, with a photo-realistic, painted background showing the rest of the camp and the entrance to Auschwitz II-Birkenau.

Auschwitz 1 was originally a Polish military barracks from WWI. The Nazis converted it to a prison camp after their invasion of 1939. It had over twenty buildings, mostly two-story brick. Writer Ummeli is absolutely right in his description of the railroad platform. It’s too big to make, as is all of Auschwitz. If I made the camp to scale, the people would be like ants. If I made it in 1/35, it would probably be fill my house. To give the proper respect without losing its story power, I’m making one SS administration building, the entrance building,two prisoner barracks, a crematorium with underground gas chamber and undressing room, and three guard towers. It will look like this:

From left to right, the SS administration building and entrance gate (with the famous “Arbeit Macht Frei” slogan on the iron gate), the triple fence, the first and second prisoner barracks, the crematorium and gas chamber, then the cremation pit and last guard tower.

The figures make up all the action. After the SS admin bldg. and triple-fence, a vignette of the kapos and SS disciplining a prisoner at the whipping table while other prisoners watch. Between the first and second prisoner barracks, a menacing but tastefully done vignette of an execution line, with SS making copious notes. After the second barracks, a vignette of a prisoner being forced to the gallows by a kapo. Under the crematorium is the undressing chamber, with civilians undressing, and an empty gas chamber. After this, a pile of dead bodies and the cremation pit, along with bodies being unloaded from a train’s cattle car. Smoke is coming from the chimney of the crematorium. The buildings will be lighted from the inside, so you can see the SS offices, what the barracks looked like, and the crematorium ovens. The triple fence will also be lighted with HO scale street lights.

In the foreground is a long line of civilians walking somberly to the gas chambers, Dr. Josef Mengele making a “selektion,” and some prisoners on a work detail.

I want to make a small vignette of Germans fighting the liberating Russians, even though, like you guys said, that never happened on death camp grounds. I want to show the Russian liberators fighting the Germans. My father was actually liberated by Americans after a death march into Germany. Will this work? I’m not sure, it might make the diorama too busy, or it may detract from the atrocities. I will include it in my photos, and, hopefully, you can help me make a decision as to its appropriateness.

To go with the diorama, I am writing up a scene-by-scene explanation for each vignette and structure to give the viewer a detailed explanation of what’s going on. Like in a museum display, this will have each vignette numbered according to the action above.

How does this sound? Pictures will folow when I get them developed and can figure out how to send them.

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P.S. I’m wasn’t going to include the camp orchestra because a lot of people, including my father, never saw it. But if I can find 1/72 scale figures playing instruments, it would make a good, if bizarre, filler for some space near the prisoner barracks as the line of civilians walks by. It would also make a great reflection of the insanity of the place. I’ll start looking for those figures. Thanks again, ummeli. Thaks to you all for your thoughtful replies.

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History has a bad habit of repeating its self, yes research any way you can, build the diorama, teach the younger generation that thing can happen again!
Your father will be proud of the work done, don’t worry what or how it will come to you.

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First I would applaud your efforts and commend you for taking on the task. From what I have read, you seem to be looking for ideas on completing the various themes you have going on. I might recommend that if you are using HO scale structures that you try to stay to scale with figures and vehicles. There are a myriad of figures from Preiser in that scale and vehicles are no problem either. This will allow you to fit more on the platform size your have chosen too.

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most importantly, you should make a plaque to go in the front explaining it and how it should never reaccur, since you definitely don’t want it to be misinterpreted. both my grandparents were survivors, so i feel connected to this too

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Thanks again! The HO scale structures mix well with HO scale figures, but I already spent a lot of money on 1/72 scale figures and vehicles. Together, their appearance is okay, but not fantastic. When I post the photos, I’ll definitely need some feedback. Thanks for watching this forum!

I plan to make a long plaque with a detailed explanation of each vignette, complete with black silhouettes, museum-style, so there’ll be no doubt of my intent to expose the Nazis for what they were: murdering scum. They killed my father in those camps. He survived another fifty years until he died in 2004, but he never escaped the constant nightmares, alcoholism, survivor guilt, and fear of starvation. When he died, I emptied out a three-month supply of food hoarded in his refrigerator. Plus I inherited all his guns, which he kept loaded in case they came to take him away again.

Thanks to all for reading and giving me feedback. When I get my photo-CD back from the developers, I will post pictures, assuming my e-machine computer can translate and send them.

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I think this is a project well worth taking up. I will do one one day in 1/35 scale ( a smaller diorama than yours of course). Best of luck! God Bless!

Perry Lockhart
Shell Point

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Man, this is heavy stuff. I commend your effort and look forward to the finished product. My wife’s great uncle was in Dachau. The internet makes the world a small place, don’t you think?

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it sounds like you re either doing a very BIG dio or a series of small vignettes. if u r doing a bunch of vignettes then, i would omit some of them, they might a bit too much when u already have a crematorium, and selection.
i made a small vignette of the entrance, with the train tracks, a couple barracks and gaurd towers out of balsa, i didnt spend much time on it (polish school project) but it was (i think) enough and gave the message.
but i see that what ur doing is very sentimental so godspeed, you can find a lot of birds eye view pictures off the internet, and i bet u can find many books with pictures that would help you.