In 1941, in Vienna, a pseudoscientific project was developed in line with the ideology of National Socialism, the aim of which was to “study the typical racial characteristics of Eastern Jews.” As part of the “research” in German-occupied Tarnów, members of over a hundred Jewish families were photographed, a total of 565 men, women and children. Fewer than 30 of these people survived the Holocaust. The photos which were taken at that time as well as short biographies of the victims survived.
The exhibition “The Cold Eye” documents pseudoscientific research and tells the story of Jews who lived in Tarnów under the Nazi German occupation.
The exhibition was created by the Museum of Natural History Vienna and the Berlin-based foundations: Topography of Terror and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. The exhibition is divided into four sections, the center of which is the photography archive.
