Breaking Stereotypes

»A New Epoch for Jews in Germany« - panel 4

Stereotypes concerning Jews? There are several …

 

Kathrin Leibmann:

“With this exhibition, I want to break with several stereotypes. Most Germans associate ‘Jewish’ with the Holocaust, concentration camps or ‘Schindler’s List’. Sure, it isn’t that easy to leave behind history. But in the last 25 years, Germany has experienced a renaissance of Jewish life. No miracle, no gift … but life just continues.

At a gathering (late 1970s) next to the memorial for the murdered Jews in the Kherson region (Ukraine): “My father never wanted to go to Germany. He comes from a Jewish agricultural colony in the southern Ukraine. Nazis murdered 15,000 Jews in this district in the fall of 1941. Old people, women, and children were tied together in twos and tossed into the steppe well.

Dr. Dmitrij Belkin:

“Makkabiade – a great thing! Germany, announced the Federal Government, can only be deeply grateful for the diversity of Jewish life and the many guests coming to Berlin. People! Be happy, optimistic, sad, pessimistic, positive, critical, etc. – but please not grateful. ‘We are grateful. The Jews are a gift to us, after all that …’ Love or sympathy shows itself through interest not wrapped-up gift parcels! I will be ‘grateful’ when the language of communication will be a different one, because the current [discourse] testifies to huge tensions.”

Details

Exhibition: A New Epoch for Jews in Germany
Duration: From 11th December 2016 to 7th January 2017
Location: Bürgersaal, Neues Rathaus, Hannover
Panel: 4 from 15
Technique: Digital print on Alu-Dibond
Concept and texts: Kathrin Leibmann
Design: Stanislav Ivanchuk