We were neighbors
We were neighbors - Biographies of Jewish Contemporary Witnesses is a public exhibition on the collective memory of the local victims of the Shoah, the persecution of Jews under National Socialism , in the Schöneberg Town Hall in the Tempelhof-Schöneberg district of Berlin . Opened in January 2005, it has been accessible since 2010 as a year-round permanent exhibition with the support of the Berlin Cultural Administration. The exhibition is a kind of walk-in family album or, in the Jewish tradition of the memorandum, a space for commemorating the dead.
The redesigned hall of the exhibition hall in the town hall looks like a historical library hall to the visitors . Biographical albums on former Jewish residents of the Berlin districts of Schöneberg and Tempelhof in the period before 1933 and before 1942 are available for reading and leafing through on lecterns . Complementary elements of the exhibition open up further approaches to your topic.
Jewish residents in Schöneberg and Tempelhof (1933)
At the beginning of the Nazi regime in 1933 there were over 16,000 Jewish residents in Schöneberg, 7.35% of all Schönebergers. The Bavarian Quarter , therefore also called Jewish Switzerland , was particularly popular as a residential area in the district . During the Nazi era, over 6,000 Jewish residents were deported from Schöneberg in front of their neighbors . In 1933, around 2,300 Jewish residents (2.03%) lived in the neighboring district of Berlin-Tempelhof, 230 of whom were deported.
Place of remembrance
The exhibition is the result of contemporary witnesses and remembrance work by the Schöneberg Art Office that began in the 1980s . This extraordinary idea of a Berlin district to set up a symbolic place of remembrance, a place of remembrance for the persecuted and murdered Jewish neighbors, has been continued ever since. This has created another place of remembrance and remembrance of the Holocaust in addition to the memorials for the victims of National Socialism in Berlin.
Elements of the exhibition
Biographical albums
Currently (as of 2020) 170 biographical albums document the life and suffering of Jewish citizens from the Berlin districts of Schöneberg and Tempelhof. Most of the family and individual biographies were developed in collaboration with contemporary witnesses . History is told here from their perspective, as the exhibition title We were neighbors suggests. Personal contemporary photographs , documents, letters and reports make your story tangible in an impressive way.
Around a third of the biographical albums are dedicated to prominent Schöneberger and Tempelhof personalities from literature, music, art, science or sport (such as Albert Einstein , Alfred Kerr , Helmut Newton , Billy Wilder , Erich Fromm , Wilhelm Reich , Kurt Tucholsky , Gertrud Kolmar , Else Lasker-Schüler , Gisèle Freund , Coco Schumann , Nelly Sachs , Alice Salomon , Lilli Henoch , Alfred Flatow and Gustav Flatow as well as Georg Hermann ; the history of the resistance fighters Liane Berkowitz ) and Marianne Cohn is also documented . Life before and after 1933 is portrayed, possibly the flight into exile , the deportation and murder of family members.
The albums also show life after the Holocaust up to the present day and are supplemented by answers to the question of other forms of memory (such as memorial plaques , stumbling blocks and biographical literature).
The exhibition concept is a work in progress , so that the exhibition is supplemented with new biographical albums every year, has an annually changing focus (see supporting program ) and can also be expanded. Not least for this reason, contemporary witnesses and their relatives at home and abroad are invited to contact the exhibition.
Listening stations
The impression of authenticity brought about by the biographical albums is reinforced by short “audio pieces” in the case of 15 specially marked albums. Here, while leafing through or looking at the photographs, readers can listen to the authentic voices of the writer Kurt Hiller or the musician Ilja Bergh, for example. The listening stations are continually being expanded, for which, among other things, original interviews with contemporary witnesses can be used. The editorial and technical work required for this is made possible by sponsors of the listening stations.
Index cards of deportees
Handwritten index cards with the names of more than 6000 deportees and murdered people from Schöneberg and Tempelhof are affixed to the walls of the exhibition hall in alphabetical order according to street names. They were transferred in 1987 by Andreas Wilcke (at the time a member of the Schöneberg district council assembly ) from the register of the Oberfinanzdirektion and later supplemented with maps of the data from Tempelhof deportees. During the Nazi era, this personal data was recorded by the Berlin tax authorities in order to confiscate the deportees' assets. The cards issued contain the names and last addresses of the deportees, the date and destination of the deportation. 6069 names on the index cards make it easy to understand how many former Jewish neighbors were picked up from their apartments or arrested at their workplaces (see also factory campaign ) in order to be transported with the Deutsche Reichsbahn to the ghettos , concentration camps or extermination camps , where they were murdered were or have since been lost.
Country tables of the countries of exile
On display boards , so-called country boards , situations in the most important countries of exile , as found by the emigrants, are presented with contemporary texts and images, supplemented with references to relevant biographical albums from the exhibition. The main countries of exile were Great Britain , Palestine , the USA , Latin America , Switzerland and China . There will also be photographs from Turkey , a country of exile , where Ernst Reuter lived in political exile before he was elected Lord Mayor of Berlin in 1947 , based in Schöneberg Town Hall from 1949 onwards.
Interview film
Another element of the exhibition is the interview film Shared memories by Monika Wenczel. This film is based on interviews with Jewish and non-Jewish contemporary witnesses from the Bavarian Quarter.
Information desk
An information desk contains an interactive information monitor. The interview film mentioned above can be viewed chapter by chapter or in full and background information on the Bavarian Quarter and the interviewees can be called up. A glossary provides information on contemporary terms, a timeline provides information on the most important events in the German Reich and in Berlin. In addition, there are memorial books for Schöneberg, Tempelhof and Berlin as well as the Jewish address book for Berlin from 1931.
Archive of memories
In the so-called archive of memories , visitors will find fragments of memories (short reports, notes, photos) from non-Jewish contemporary witnesses and from visitors to the exhibition about people, events and places related to the theme of the exhibition. Visitors can always add to it.
Current media reports
This exhibition element deals with everyday life today and contains current media reports on anti-Semitism and racism as well as a press wall with newspaper clippings.
Educational advice for schools
Regular visitors also include school classes (by prior arrangement), especially for teaching projects in the subjects of social studies , history , local history or general science . For this purpose, expert staff is present in the exhibition for advice and, if necessary, also guidance.
Visitor advice
Expert staff is present in the exhibition to advise visitors and guide groups of visitors (by prior arrangement). In this way, individual questions can also be answered or advice given.
Supporting program
Individual aspects of the exhibition are examined in more detail in the framework programs on annually changing thematic focuses. In 2018, the acoustic memories of people who lived in the district will be brought closer to visitors under the title Unheard Voices . For example, the former violinist of the Berlin Philharmonic, Hellmut Stern , the jazz guitarist Coco Schumann , the lyricist Mascha Kaléko , the director Billy Wilder and the photographer Gisèle Freund remember their time in Schöneberg or Tempelhof. Actors recite poems or letters to others, such as Gertrud Kolmar or Kurt Tucholsky . In 2017, the focus was on the fates of children and young people during the Nazi era. In 2014 the focus was on Jews in World War I , in 2012 the life of Jewish doctors was discussed, in 2011 Jewish lawyers and in 2010 Jewish schools and students (Luise Zickel - Zickel School, Reimann School ). As additional accompanying events, there were regular readings with conversations by the contemporary witness Rahel Mann and monthly screenings of thematically relevant feature films and documentaries in the town hall's cinema.
Visitor success
More than 28,000 visitors to the exhibition were counted since the opening in 2005 until 2010, and more than 10,000 annually since 2011. They come from home and abroad and are partly contemporary witnesses, their descendants, relatives or acquaintances.
Relation to memorial places of remembrance
The exhibition is related to the conceptual memorial by the artists Renata Stih and Frieder Schnock: Places of Remembrance in the Bavarian Quarter . This memorial, inaugurated in 1993, consists of an urban installation of 80 colored, double-sided panels of image and text combinations, which illustrate the increasing exclusion and disenfranchisement of the Jewish population during the Nazi era.
History site with a similar orientation
The Humberghaus , in Westmünsterland , today Kreis Wesel , also focuses on the neighborly relationship of the Jewish Humberg and Terhoch families until 1941 and also maintains contact with their descendants in Canada for several generations.
literature
- Schöneberg Art Office, Schöneberg Museum, Memorial House of the Wannsee Conference (ed.): Places of Remembrance: Volume 1, The Monument in the Bavarian Quarter Edition Hentrich, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-89468-146-2 .
- ask! Association for Encounter and Remembrance (ed.), Klaus Wiese, Jochen Thron: We were neighbors - biographies of Jewish contemporary witnesses. An exhibition in the Berlin memory landscape. Verlag Hentrich & Hentrich, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-938485-73-6 (with video documentation on mini-DVD).
Web links
- We were neighbors - biographies of Jewish contemporary witnesses. Website of the exhibition installation in the town hall of Berlin-Schöneberg (with the option of subscribing to the exhibition's free newsletter with information on the supporting events)
- "We were neighbors" assured. In: Berliner Woche , July 13, 2016
Individual evidence
- ↑ Schöneberg Art Office, Schöneberg Museum, Memorial House of the Wannsee Conference (ed.): Places of Remembrance: Volume 2, Jewish everyday life in the Bavarian Quarter. Edition Hentrich, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-89468-147-0 , p. 12 (table results of the census of May 16, 1933 )
- ↑ Schöneberg Art Office, Schöneberg Museum, Memorial House of the Wannsee Conference (ed.): Places of Remembrance: Volume 2, Jewish everyday life in the Bavarian Quarter. Edition Hentrich, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-89468-147-0 , pp. 215-270 ( memorial book, with an introduction by Katharina Kaiser).
- ↑ The expropriation of all expelled and deported Jews. At: berlin.de , accessed on June 28, 2019
- ↑ Link to the association's website, ask! with information on the interview film Shared memories ( memento from July 30, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ), conception: Katharina Kaiser, Monika Wenczel, texts and research: Dr. Ruth Federspiel, Jens Leder, Production: Tempelhof-Schöneberg District Office of Berlin, Haus am Kleistpark Art Office, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media, Berlin 2000–2005
- ^ Free University of Berlin, Central Institute for Social Science Research (ed.): Berlin Memorial Book of the Jewish Victims of National Socialism. “May their names never be forgotten.” Edition Hentrich, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-89468-178-0 . (The book published on the 50th anniversary of the liberation from National Socialist rule lists over 55,000 names of persecuted and murdered Berlin Jews.)
- ↑ Press releases ( memento from July 23, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) of the Tempelhof-Schöneberg district office on the exhibitions of the years 2005–2010
- ↑ Stumbling block for Luise Zickel on wikimedia.commons
- ↑ Article about Luise Zickel in the Schöneberg district newspaper , March 2010
- ↑ Rahel Mann's guardian angel was a housewife contemporary witness Rahel Mann read into old age in the Schöneberg town hall from the book "You can't get us: Hidden as children - Jewish survivors tell" Der Tagesspiegel of February 3, 2020
- ↑ a b The evaluation of the statistics for the following years is in preparation.