On Displaying Violence

How did post-war societies process the experience of violence and annihilation caused by the Second World War and the forcible occupation of large parts of Europe by National Socialist Germany? A previously overlooked, but historically influential form of coming to terms with this desolation were the exhibitions that were organised in post-war Europe between 1945 and 1948 by institutions, groups, and many other players in numerous countries. In those times of social distress, political insecurity, lasting violence and uncertain future prospects, the exhibitions aimed to document and visualise the consequences of the Holocaust and the Nazi crimes.

For the first time the Deutsches Historisches Museum plans to examine the history of this pan-European phenomenon on the basis of early exhibitions in London, Paris, Warsaw, Liberec and Bergen-Belsen. The DHM presentation focuses on the different forms and contents with which the exhibition makers of that time – including victims of Nazi persecution and Holocaust survivors – dealt with the violent events, the resistance, the perpetrators, and the loss of cultural heritage. Also illustrated are the different notions of the future that found expression in these exhibitions.

Embedded in their respective local and national contexts, the various imageries used to visualise the terror will be analysed and the sources compared. The exhibition will trace the motivation of the participants, but also the impact on audiences as the exhibitions travelled across Europe from country to country. Original objects, photographs, films, documents, artworks and multimedia presentations will enable visitors to experience the challenges and backgrounds of this “first look back” at the German tyranny all over Europe.

The exhibition is being realised in cooperation with the Project Group for the documentation centre “German Occupation of Europe in the Second World War” (ZWBE) . An accompanying programme conceived by the DHM and the ZWBE will explore the topic of German occupation and tyranny in Europe in greater depth.

The curator of the exhibition is Dr Agata Pietrasik.

Picture: View of the exhibition “Warszawa oskarża” (Warsaw accuses), National Museum in Warsaw, 1945. Photo: National Museum in Warsaw