PHOTOGRAPH: MARION DAVIES, FROM ABSENCE AND LOSS: HOLOCAUST
MEMORIALS IN BERLIN AND BEYOND, 2007
macht”, on being confronted with images
of German soldiers killing Jews. The exhibition, held in Germany and Austria in
the 1990s, brought the grandchildren of
the wartime generation face-to-face with
their grandparents’ Nazi past.
This is but one of the reactions to the
Nazi atrocities chronicled in “Germany’s
Confrontation with the Holocaust in a
Global Context”, an international exhibition being hosted by the Cape Town Holocaust Centre until 27 March. It is then
scheduled to move to the Holocaust centres
in Durban and Johannesburg, after which it
will return to the Mother City, where it is
hoped it will travel to various schools.
Its focus is not the history of the Holocaust, but rather an examination of the re-
Memorial at Pulitzbrücke, Berlin,
marking the deportation of
German Jews
sponses of post-war Germans to the
crimes committed in their name: silence,
outrage, reconciliation and memorialisation. Designed to engage the viewer, it
poses many questions, among them,
around the meaning of reconciliation.
Does it happen between countries, governments, communities or individuals?
In 1952, German chancellor Konrad
Adenauer agreed that West Germany
would pay reparations to Israel for the
genocide of Jews during World War II. In
1966, he visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Israel – every German
chancellor since has followed in his footsteps, “to show German contrition and to
restate Germany’s hope for reconciliation”.
We learn that some Israelis protested
THE EXHIBITION, HELD IN GERMANY AND AUSTRIA
IN THE 1990s, BROUGHT THE GRANDCHILDREN OF THE
WARTIME GENERATION FACE-TO-FACE WITH THEIR
GRANDPARENTS’ NAZI PAST.
“ WHAT DOES THE
WISE SON SAY?”
Pesach Haggadah
Through the Chev’s education support
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actuarial science degree and find my
first job - Jared
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