The exhibition "Home and Exile. Jewish Emigration from Germany since 1933" was organized in collaboration with the Haus der Geschichte in Bonn and will be shown in Berlin from 29 September 2006 through 9 April 2007 at the Jewish Museum Berlin, and subsequently at the Haus der Geschichte in Bonn and the Forum of Contemporary History Leipzig.
The exhibition centers on the assimilation of the individual Jewish refugees and emigrés against the backdrop of the particular social, economic and political conditions in the receiving countries.
The focus of the first part is the expulsion of the Jewish citizens from the "community of the German nation" and the seizing of their property, manifestations of the coercion to emigrate in the early years of the National Socialist regime. After the beginning of the war this coercion condensed into a new form calling for the annihilation of the entire Jewish population in Europe.
The second part deals with the early, more or less organized emigration to the neighboring European states and - to a lesser degree - overseas, which swelled into mass flight after Germany annexed Austria and even more so after the November pogrom in 1938.
The central part of the exhibition illustrates the first years of assimilation into the receiving countries based on the experiences of individuals. The first task of this phase was to create a new material foundation and adapt to new surroundings, a foreign climate and a strange culture under difficult circumstances. Here the focus is on the countries that took in the most people: the U.S., Great Britain, Palestine, Latin America and two "exotic" examples, Shanghai and the Dominican Republic. A multi-media installation presents the various facets of the subject "home".
Further information on the exhibition (PDF, 129 KB)
Stations of the Exhibition
Jewish Museum Berlin
28 September 2006 through 9 April 2007
Haus der Geschichte, Bonn
17 May 2007 through 7 October 2007
Forum of Contemporary History Leipzig
December 2007 through February 2008