GermanArticles
Alexandra Klei | Einen Ort erinnern. Die Darstellung der jüdischen KZ-Gefangenen auf dem heutigen Gelände der Gedenkstätte Buchenwald
Gedenkstätte, Buchenwald, Erinnerungskultur, Architektur, Gedächtnis, Denkmal, Erinnerung, Memorial, Buchenwald, Culture of Memory, Architecture, Memory, Monument, Remembrance, jüdische KZ-Häftlinge
Since the reconstruction of concentration camp memorials in the 1990s, the history of these places hasn’t been further presented only through exhibitions. Since then it has been more about a reconnection of single presentations to the concrete points of the former concentration camp area. For this reason concrete material places and their building structures become more important for communication of historical facts.
The article focuses exemplarily on the construction of remembrance of Jewish prisoners of the Buchenwald concentration camp at the site of today’s Buchenwald Memorial (near Weimar). The research draws upon material information media including descriptions and analysis of monuments, inscriptions, photographs and texts.
It becomes apparent which historical information or associations about the prisoners history are being communicated to the visitor and what is the relation between concentration camp as a historical place and its constructed commemorative site.
Anna-Carolin Augustin | Nazi Looted Art in Israel: Kulturguttransfer nach 1945 und Restitution heute
Anna-Carolin Augustin, Nazi Looted Art, Israel, Restitution, Kulturguttransfer, Holocaust Era Asset Restitution Taskforce, Jewish Agency for Israel, HaShava
In the aftermath of the Washington Conference (1998) – that was joined by 44 states and intended to develop a consensus on principles to assist in resolving issues relating to Nazi-confiscated art – numerous and spectacular cases of Art Restitution occurred. Therefore, the return of artworks looted during the Nazi era became a main question for museums all over the world – also in Israel. Orphaned artworks and cultural assets reached Israeli cultural institutions not only through transfers of the international art market but also through the distribution of Jewish Restitution Successor Organizations. On the basis of several examples this essay describes the various ways of Nazi Looted Art to Israel. Against the background of the international development of Art Restitution since 1998 till today, this essay also seeks to explore the present practice of restitution of looted art in Israel.
Ines Sonder | Stadtkronen für das Neue Zion. Zur Bruno-Taut-Rezeption unter zionistischen Architekten
Bruno Taut, Stadtkrone, Utopische Architektur, Zionistische Architektur, Gartenstadt, Erez Israel, Richard Kauffmann, Erich Mendelsohn, Alex Baerwald, Alexander Levy
Bruno Taut was a key figure in architecture around 1920. His visionary ideas and manifestos still belong to the icons of Utopian architecture until today, among them his expressionist tract Die Stadtkrone (City Crown, 1919). Taut’s influence on German post-war architecture has been comprehensively analyzed in art and architectural history. The reception of his ideas and writings within the first generation of Zionist architects and their urban visions for Eretz Israel has however been largely overlooked in research on Taut. Among them are Alex Baerwald, Alexander Levy, Richard Kauffmann and Erich Mendelsohn – names that are inscribed in Israel’s history of architecture. With their drafts, they carried the city crowns idea to the New Zion. The article analyzes the aspects of Taut’s oeuvre which the Zionist architects adopted and implemented in their urban visions for Eretz Israel.
Malte Gebert | Die Rezeption der Protokolle der Weisen von Zion in Ägypten – ein Plädoyer für die Beachtung raumspezifischer Besonderheiten in der Antisemitismusforschung
Antisemitismus, Nahost-Konflikt, Ägypten, Protokolle der Weisen von Zion, Reiter ohne Pferd, Sayyid Qutb, Muhammad Subhi, Islamismus, Anti-Semitism, Middle East-Conflict, Egypt, Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Knight without a Horse, Sayyid Qutb, Muhamm
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion shall apply rightly as key-text of modern Anti-Semitism. Based on the history of its in the 1920th beginning adoption in Egypt the article shows on examples - among others the writings of the Islamist Sayyid Qutb and the TV-Series Knight without a Horse - what the spatial characteristics of Arab Anti-Semitism are. As a plea against an Import-Theory, which just understands this kind of Anti-Semitism as alien superstructure, it is demonstrated on the sources, how the conspiracy-based Anti-Semitism of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion was and is linked to the social-cultural contexts of Egyptian society. A closer look is taken on the theoretical efforts by which Sayyid Qutb invented an ‘eternal enmity’ between Jews and Muslims. A hostility that has to be considered as real in the present.
Susanne Beer und Marten Düring | Hilfe für jüdische Verfolgte im Nationalsozialismus. Biographische und sozialstrukturelle Zugänge am Beispiel der Berliner Helferin Ruth Andreas-Friedrich
Ruth Andreas-Friedrich, Onkel Emil, Berlin, 1939-1945, Holocaust, rescue of Jews, resistance, historical network analysis, Ruth Andreas-Friedrich, Onkel Emil, Berlin, 1939-1945, Holocaust, Hilfe für Verfolgte, Widerstand, Historische Netzwerkanalyse
The journalist Ruth Andreas-Friedrich is one of the few helpers of persecuted Jews in Nazi Germany who kept an extensive record of her actions. Her diary covers her experience of the persecution of many of her Jewish friends and acquaintances, her efforts to support them and the transformation of a circle of like-minded friends into a highly sophisticated and well-connected support network. We combine Andreas-Friedrichs description of herself and her group with the available historical sources. We argue that her non-conformist lifestyle, close ties with victims of persecution and their requests for help, admiration for charismatic helpers together with a like-minded social environment lead her to begin to help others. When most of their Jewish friends and acquaintances had either emigrated or were deported, the group’s activities almost came to a halt. New contacts were brokered by a refugee and one of the group’s members and lead to a second phase of activities in late 1944 and 1945.