English
Polish
In Search of the Third Way. New permanent exhibition at the Jewish Museum in Berlin (“Catastrophe” exhibition)
Zofia Wóycicka
z.woycicka@is.uw.edu.pl Biohistorian, is an assistant professor at the Department of Sociology, University of Warsaw, where she is leading an NCN OPUS22 grant entitled "Aid given to Jews during World War II and the process of formation of transnational social memory." She studied at the University of Warsaw and at Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, and completed her doctoral studies at the School of Social Sciences of the IFIS PAN. She worked as an educator at the Museum of the History of Polish Jews Polin (2007-2011) and as a curator at the House of European History in Brussels (2011-2015), and later as a researcher at the Center for Historical Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Berlin (2015-2019) and at the German Historical Institute in Warsaw (2019-2022). Her main areas of interest are memorial studies and museology, with a particular focus on the ways in which World War II history is presented. Among other works, she is the author of the book Interrupted Mourning. Polish disputes over the memory of Nazi concentration and extermination camps, 1944-1950 (2009). Her most recent publications include a special issue of Memory Studies co-edited with Magdalena Saryusz-Wolska and Joanna Wawrzyniak entitled Mnemonic Wars. New Constallations (December 2022).
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9461-2387
Warsaw University
Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały, No. 19 (2023), pages: 673-684
Publication date: 2023-12-23
Abstract
In 2020, a new permanent exhibition opened at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. It tells the story of the Jews in Germany from the Middle Ages to the present. The chronological route is interspersed with thematic “islands” showcasing Jewish culture, tradition and religious practices. One of the main differences from the previous exhibition is that much more attention Has been paid here to the period of National Socialism. This part of the exhibition also seems to be the most innovative in both content and form. Preserving its cognitive nature, at the same time it takes the form of an art installation. However, the designers do not use elements of staging, on the contrary, the installation is highly abstract, shying away from any literality. The exhibition is also characterized by minimalism in the selection of exhibits. Perhaps it is here, at the intersection of history and art, that a new space of exploration opens for curators and designers of historical exhibitions, a third way between dry historical documentation and staging of the past.
Keywords
Jewish Museum Berlin, museums, historical exhibitions, Holocaust remembrance
References
Publikacje / Publications
Assmann Jan, Pamięć kulturowa. Pismo, zapamiętywanie i polityczna tożsamość w cywilizacjach starożytnych, tłum. Anna Kryczyńska-Pham, wstęp i red. Robert Traba Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, 2015.
Wóycicka Zofia, Buchenwald revisited, „Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały” 2017, nr 13. Wóycicka Zofia, Muzeum dla dorosłych. Nowa wystawa w Miejscu Pamięci Cichych Bohate-
rów w Berlinie, „Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały” 2022, nr 18.
Netografia
Becker Stephan, Gelungene Annäherung in Berlin. Neue Dauerausstellung im Jüdischen Museum von Chezweitz und Hella Rolfes Architekten, baunetz.de, 19 VIII 2020, https:// www.baunetz.de/meldungen/Meldungen-Neue_Dauerausstellung_im_Juedischen_ Museum_von_Chezweitz_und_Hella_Rolfes_Architekten_7370882.html
Hollerhand Klaus, Ausstellung im Jüdischen Museum Berlin: Von Karl Marx bis Amy Winehouse, Taz.de, 23 VIII 2020, https://taz.de/Ausstellung-im-Juedischen-Museum-Berlin/!5703406/
Jewish Museum Berlin, What We Won’t Show You. Film Series from 2009 with Insights
into the Work of our Museum, 2009, www.jmberlin.de/en/node/3915
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Kupferberg Yael, Jüdische Geschichte und Gegenwart in Deutschland, HaSozKult, 7 XI 2020, https://www.hsozkult.de/exhibitionreview/id/reex-130870?title=juedische-ges- chichte-und-gegenwart-in-deutschland&recno=1&q=%20J%C3%BCdisches%20 Museum%20Berlin%20&sort=newestPublished&fq=&total=13
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The Libeskind Building. Architecture Retells German-Jewish History, Jüdisches Museum Berlin, https://www.jmberlin.de/en/libeskind-building
Wiedereröffnung des Jüdischen Museums Die Tora am Anfang, die Tora am Ende, audycja Carsten Dippel, Deutschlandfunk 21 VIII 2020, https://www.deutschlandfunk. de/wiedereroeffnung-des-juedischen-museums-die-tora-am-anfang-100.html
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