The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and an artist's claim to portraits of holocaust victims made in Auschwitz for Josef Mengele

In this chapter, a case study is provided that turns in subtle and complex ways on human rights issues and the rights of an artist. It also illuminates the obligations of a museum to represent historical trauma, and the fate of victims of human rights abuse, utilizing a variety of primary records and respecting varied points of view of the different ‘actors’ in that history and their fate – while also considering a museum’s need to respect obligations to authors of primary material held by the institution, including creative works by artists.