German Jews’ Reactions to National Socialism
“The Museum Made Easy:” Bookable Project Days in Plain Language (in German)
The Jewish Museum Berlin’s core exhibition tells the history of German Jews and shows how they live today.
We developed the “Museum Made Easy” project days in collaboration with young people from the Biesalski School, a special-needs school in Berlin. National Socialism is a difficult topic. We need time for it.
Project Days or Project Weeks
- We recommend booking 4 project days.
- The project days build on each other.
- We have enough time to review things and talk to each other.
- Project days can be booked consecutively or spread out over a longer period of time.
- If you don’t have a lot of time, you can book fewer project days.
- We work around the wishes and needs of each group.
- Project days run for 2.5 hours (including a break).
- Project days are led by 2 guides.
Jewish Museum Berlin; photo: Francesca Togna
Overview of a Project Day
Project days consist of several parts:
- Part 1: Arrival and introduction
- Part 2: Visit to the exhibition
- Part 3: Learn about the content through a practical activity
Example of a Project Day and Week
Project Day 1: National Socialism
- First, you get to know us and the museum’s buildings. Then we talk about the National Socialist era in general. In the exhibition, we look at antisemitic laws. These are laws against Jewish people.
- Many Jewish people fled Germany. They went to other countries and looked for a new home there. The countries where they found refuge are called “exile.” In the museum, there is a “Garden of Exile.” We explore this garden and create our own picture of it from photos and text.
- In between, we take a long break together. Please bring something to eat with you.
Project Day 2: How did Jewish people react to National Socialism?
- We review what we did on the first project day.
- You have already learned a lot about what it was like for German Jews under the Nazis.
- On the second project day, we take a look at how Jewish people prepared for emigration.
- We take another long break together. Please bring something to eat with you.
Project Day 3: Books for Children and Young People
- The third project day is spent in the Jewish Museum’s library. There, we look for books about the Nazi era.
- We read books in small groups and present them to each other.
- We take another long break together. Please bring something to eat with you.
Project Day 4: The Yellow Star
- Today we focus on the yellow star. This is a star that Jewish people had to sew onto their clothes. The word “Jew” was written on it. This meant people could see who was Jewish.
The star marked the beginning of the deportations. Deportation means that Jewish men, women and children were taken to concentration camps. We show you a series of photos of a deportation. - We also take a long break on this day. Please bring something to eat with you.
- We remind ourselves what we did on the previous project days and think about what the history of Jewish people under National Socialism might mean for us today.
Accessibility at the Jewish Museum Berlin: An overview
- General Information
- Accessibility at the Jewish Museum Berlin: Directions, visiting the museum, audience-specific
- Simple English: Information about the Jewish Museum Berlin and its website in Simple English
- Accessibility Statement: Information on areas in which accessibility is still lacking, options for giving feedback, and the arbitration service
- Tours & Workshops
- JMB App: Including audio tours, German plain language, German Sign Language, optimized for screen readers, features touching instructions for tactile paintings, and audio texts for reading along
- Access Program Tours by appointment and with fixed dates
