‘Come in for a minute’: an exhibition depicting the horrors of the 7 October attacks opens in London | London

Two police cars waited anxiously by the front door. Police patrolled the streets while well-suited security guards with ear muffs stood at attention, suspicious of oncoming traffic. A place in the east London it had not been revealed until that morning but no chance was taken.

It was not about the visiting dignitary or even the embassy of the country that is fighting that all this seemed important but the Nova exhibition, the memorial of the 378 people who were killed during the music festival on 7 October together with 44 who were taken as slaves and 19 of them who died. Hamas slavery.

When the show arrived in New York, hundreds of people came to Lower Manhattan to protest against their actions. Israel since the attack of 7 October, some of them said that the show was political propaganda.

Elkana Bohbot, co-organizer of the 2023 music festival, who spent 738 days as a prisoner in Gaza of which 690 was on the street, said he had only one request for those who would come to the show in London: “Come in for a minute. Not an hour but a minute. Come in.

London is the 10th city to have a deep memorial to this part of the worst atrocities committed against the Jews since the Nazi era. There is a shoe room for those who escaped, which brings back memories of watches, hair and shoes that served as evidence in prison cases. But the horrors of Nova may be some of the most memorable of our time. The exhibition in Shoreditch, which opens to the public on Wednesday, aims to use what has been captured in technology, through the phones of the victims and the body cameras of the victims, to protest “with their eyes” that defy gravity, said Bohbot, 36, whose appearance perhaps provides more evidence of the problems that haunt him at night.

Visitors to the six-week exhibition are first shown a three-minute film of party-goers talking about the excitement of the event, and the beauty of the sunrise that morning as they continue to dance. This ends with a recording recording the moment the DJ on the main stage was told the music had to stop. “Red alert, red alert,” the crowd was told.

The next room in the exhibition – dark, noisy and disturbing – is scattered with the belongings of the participants along with other important pieces of the crime scene. There are burnt out cars and toilet cubicles next to the pro-cam footage showing what happened. There are hearings of those who found themselves cowering under the bush or forced into ten-kilometer dangerous tunnels for safety. The tape also captures the moment one of the Hamas attackers brags to his father that he killed “10 Jews with my bare hands” and calls from the “phone of the Jew” he killed along with his husband.

Another exhibit is CCTV outside a bomb shelter near the festival where young men and women hid for their lives. Bombs can be seen thrown by the terrorists – and quickly chased away by Aner Shapiro, 22, a British-Israeli citizen and Israeli soldier who had just come to dance with friends.

His parents Moshe, 55, and Shira, 50, said they could account for the last 30 minutes of their son’s life thanks to their first-hand account, phone pictures and CCTV footage. There were 27 people in the house, designed for eight people. “He told them: ‘My name is Aner Shapiro, I am a soldier. I have to tell you, there is a war now, a big war. Don’t be afraid. You will be fine. I will protect you,'” said Shira, who was born in Oxford. Shapiro is believed to have thrown as many as 11 bombs before the grenade was used on him and was followed by more bombs. He died of a gunshot wound to the head. He had told those behind him to try to follow what he had done when he fell. He said that until the Hamas terrorists stormed in. Five of the 16 people inside were captured. One was shot there. Three later returned alive from Gaza.

The protests that took place outside the event in New York were “an indication of the need to hold this protest again and again and in more places,” said Aner’s father. They don’t want to know, but that doesn’t mean they can’t know what happened.

Lisa and Michael Marlowe, from north London, last spoke to their son, Jake, 26, at 4.30am UK time on 7 October. He was an unarmed security guard at the event. Michael, 64, said: “He would ask for money again. He just said: ‘I love you, and I will keep writing to you.’ “It’s important for everyone to see this show,” said Michael, who had to identify his son in a morgue in Israel. “We’re not lying.”