The Evidence Room - Hardcover

The last step of genocide is denial. In 2000, a libel suit argued before the Royal Courts of Justice in London, England successfully challenged the false assertion by a revisionist historian and Holocaust denier that there had been no gas chambers in Auschwitz and that therefore the Holocaust didn't happen. Central to the proceedings were the forensic interpretation of the blueprints of the Auschwitz crematoria and the expert witness testimony by Robert Jan van Pelt, a professor at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture, Canada, about the design and operation of those buildings as a killing facility. His interpretation and his testimony were integral to winning the case and to asserting the truth of the Holocaust - the defining crime of the twentieth century. The Evidence Room is both a companion piece to and an elaboration of an exhibition, first presented at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale, based on van Pelt's testimony. In the exhibition, the key pieces of architectural evidence presented in the trial literally take shape by means of life-size reconstructions (gas column, gastight door, gas hatch) and plaster casts (architectural drawings, architects' correspondence, construction photographs, drawings by Auschwitz survivors). These pieces of both survivors and perpetrators that Auschwitz was a purposefully designed factory of death in which over 1.1 million people, 90 per cent of whom were Jews, were murdered, mostly in cyanide gas chambers. They also call attention to the greatest crime ever committed by architects.

Anne Bordeleau was awarded a PhD from the Bartlett School of Graduate Studies (University College London, UK) after receiving her professional degree and Masters in the history and theory of architecture from McGill University (Montreal). She is an architect and historian whose research interests include the epistemology of the architectural project, as well as the historiographical and practical bearing of investigating the relations between architecture and time. She is fundamentally interested in architecture as a cultural act, a commitment that informs her research as much as her approach to education.
Sascha Hastings is an experienced Arts Producer with extensive knowledge of the arts, architecture and design, and radio broadcasting industries. She has a Masters Diploma in Business for Arts and Culture from the Istituto Europe di Design (IED).
Robert Jan van Pelt is professor of architecture at the University of Waterloo. Cultural historian and author, Robert earned a D.Litt. from Leiden University and has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in recognition of his scholarly work. He has written several highly acclaimed books, and he is world-renowned for his extensive research into issues surrounding the architecture of the Holocaust.
Donald McKay is Professor Emeritus at the School of Architecture at the University of Waterloo. He is a graduate of the University of Toronto and has designed many widely published and award-winning projects including both buildings and furniture.