No exhibit can replicate the emotional weight of standing in the largest concentration and extermination camp complex in Nazi-occupied territory. Coming as close as possible is among the goals of “Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away,” an immersive exhibit at the Museum of Jewish Heritage-A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in downtown Manhattan. Years in the making, the exhibit opens on May 8 and runs through January 3, 2020.

The show includes 700 objects, many on loan from the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and appearing in the United States for the first time, including a barrack from the Auschwitz III-Monowitz labor camp and an original Model 2 freight car used to transport Jews, Roma and others to the camps.

“Auschwitz” tracks the course of the Holocaust through the creation of the camp in the once idyllic Polish town of Oswiecim (at one time known to its Jewish inhabitants as Oshpitzin, from the Aramaic for guests).

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Conceived by Musealia, a Spanish traveling exhibition company, and the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum and curated by an international panel of experts, the exhibit premiered in Madrid in 2017. New York is the show’s second stop on a seven-year worldwide tour, with later venues yet to be announced.