POV: Inside the Nazis’ Gas Chamber

Nazi gas chambers are deeply embedded in our collective memory of the Holocaust. However, the challenge of representing these actual and symbolic sites of genocide has posed significant ethical dilemmas for artists working in the postwar years, given the absence of direct witnesses to the crime of gassing humans. Nonetheless, numerous artists have “entered” the gas chambers over the years, thus contesting discursive and visual conventions regarding their “unrepresentability.” The article situates these artworks within their larger historical and cultural contexts. It suggests that they frequently (re)present an inner-chamber point of view (POV) less commonly found in other visual media and thereby highlights the unique contribution of art to Holocaust memory.