April 30, 2024 - Robert Jan van Pelt, Boston Design Week, and Ngoc-Tran Vu

What’s past doesn’t need to be prologue. That is the point of the exhibition “Auschwitz: Not long ago. Not far away,” –  to learn about the atrocities of the Holocaust so that history is not repeated. From the concrete posts used to fence in the camp,  to a gas mask used by SS garrison members, to the suitcases and journals belonging to the prisoners– hundreds of  original artifacts tell  the horrors of those who suffered and were killed at Auschwitz during World War II. The exhibition is on view at The Castle at Park Plaza, making its Boston debut amid a rise in antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents in Massachusetts. Robert Jan van Pelt, the exhibition’s chief curator and Auschwitz historian joins us. And, when it comes to design,  Mies van der Rohe believed that less is more, but when it comes to Boston Design Week he’d probably agree that more is more. Boston Design Week kicked off on April 23rd, it’s on through May 5th and it features more than 70 events throughout the city, and the theme of this year is “Designing for the Future – Preserving for the Future,”  Boston Design Week co-producer Tony Fusco joins us for an overview. Finally, April 30th, known as “ Black April,” is a day to lament and reflect upon the fall of Saigon and of South Vietnam, in 1975, and the beginning of the exodus of millions of  Vietnamese. Local artist Ngoc-Tran Vu is working with other artists and the community to create   a permanent Vietnamese Diaspora Healing Memorial in Boston’s Little Saigon district. She joins us to talk about the project.