THE HOLOCAUST AND ITS CONTEXTS Exhibiting the Nazi Past Museum Objects Between the Material and the Immaterial Chloe Paver The Holocaust and its Contexts Series Editors Claus-Christian W. Szejnmann Loughborough University Loughborough, UK Ben Barkow The Wiener Library London, UK More than sixty years on, the Holocaust remains a subject of intense debate with ever-widening ramifcations. This series aims to demonstrate the continuing relevance of the Holocaust and related issues in con- temporary society, politics and culture; studying the Holocaust and its history broadens our understanding not only of the events themselves but also of their present-day signifcance. The series acknowledges and responds to the continuing gaps in our knowledge about the events that constituted the Holocaust, the various forms in which the Holocaust has been remembered, interpreted and discussed, and the increasing impor- tance of the Holocaust today to many individuals and communities. More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14433 Chloe Paver Exhibiting the Nazi Past Museum Objects Between the Material and the Immaterial Chloe Paver College of Humanities University of Exeter Exeter, UK The Holocaust and its Contexts ISBN 978-3-319-77083-3 ISBN 978-3-319-77084-0 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77084-0 Library of Congress Control Number: 2018947408 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifcally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microflms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. 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Cover illustration: A casket in the shape of a heart, made by a Soviet forced labourer, 1943. © Photograph by Thomas Bruns, Deutsch-Russisches Museum Berlin-Karlshorst This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I frst began to study history exhibitions with the aid of a year’s grant from the Humboldt Foundation. Their generous support not only gave me time to study but also gave me the opportunity and conf- dence to venture into a new feld of research. During this time, I was lucky enough to be mentored by Aleida Assmann, who gave me much sound advice and access to a lively research environment. Herbert Posch invited me to spend a few months at the IFF in Vienna, where I was able to investigate the exhibition ‘InventArisiert’ and discuss my work with his colleagues, including Roswitha Muttenthaler. Over the years, the following exhibition-makers were kind enough to give me some of their time: the late Burkhard Asmuss and Lydia Marinelli, Hanno Loewy, Felicitas Heimann-Jelinek, Hannes Sulzenbacher, Ilsebill Barta-Fliedl, Stephan Matyus, Insa Eschebach, Hans-Christian Täubrich, Bettina Leder-Hindemith, Ernst Klein, Harry Stein, Margot Blank and Winfried Nerdinger. I owe a debt of thanks to my colleagues in German and in Modern Languages at Exeter, who have supported my work through research leave, discussion and reading of drafts. I also received very helpful advice from Palgrave Macmillan’s peer reviewer. Three Ph.D. students whose theses I examined (Clare Copley, Stephanie Bostock and Michaela Dixon) informed and inspired me with their work on a wide range of museums and sites of memory. Rick Lawrence of RAMM, Charlotte Drohan and members of the University of the Third Age joined me for a productive discussion about German and Austrian history museums. v vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Finally, my family, including my father Allan and my brothers and sis- ters, have been a constant support. This book is dedicated to the mem- ory of my mother, Ann Paver (née Topping), who taught us to respect books and always to turn the pages correctly. CONTENTS 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Objects in Focus 1 1.2 The Exhibitionary Routine 5 1.3 Scope of the Study 11 1.4 Research Context 15 1.5 Structure of the Analysis 21 2 Between the Material and the Immaterial 25 2.1 Broken Glass 25 2.2 Objects as Signifers and Fragments 30 2.3 Mentalities, Experiences, Emotions—and Objects 41 2.4 Object Life Cycles 53 3 Material Experiences, 1933–45 65 3.1 Jews and Heimat: Objects and Belonging 65 3.2 Mentalities and Materials 80 3.3 Hitler Busts and Nazi Symbols 98 3.4 Material Economies and Sign Systems of the Camps 107 3.5 Material Experiences of the Non-persecuted Majority in Wartime 125 vii viii CONTENTS 4 Material Collapse, 1945 143 4.1 The Sortie de Guerre: Objects Caught in Time 144 4.2 Vandalism, Disposal and Recycling 150 4.3 New Material Beginnings for the Victims 162 5 Material After-Lives Between the Attic and the Archive 171 5.1 Hitler in the Attic, in the Museum: How the Domestic Spaces of the Majority Culture Have Yielded Up Objects 173 5.2 Hiding in Plain Sight: Remnants of National Socialism in the Public Sphere 192 5.3 Resurfacing and Restitution: Victims’ Objects After 1945 205 5.4 Survival Among Objects 223 5.5 Michael Köhlmeier’s Story ‘Der Silberlöffel’: ‘Aryanized’ Objects in the Liberal Imagination 236 5.6 Coming to Terms with the Coming to Terms 247 5.7 Life Goes on in the Museum: The Continuation of the Object Life Cycle 263 6 Conclusion 275 Bibliography 279 Index 295 LIST OF FIGURES Fig. 3.1 A ‘gartel’ donated by Jewish villager Emma Ullmann to the Schnaittach Heimatmuseum in 1933, with a handwritten explanation of how it functioned, Jüdisches Museum Schnaittach. Photograph: Chloe Paver 77 Fig. 3.2 Honey centrifuge in the collection of the Freilichtmuseum Glentleiten, shown in the exhibition ‘Volk – Heimat – Dorf’, 2017. © Bezirk Oberbayern, Archiv FLM Glentlteiten 83 Fig. 3.3 Display of words at the exhibition ‘Sex-Zwangsarbeit in NS-Konzentrationslagern’, Mahn- und Gedenkstätte Ravensbrück, 2007. Photograph: Chloe Paver 93 Fig. 3.4 Mannequin dressed in lederhosen, with a photograph of Hitler behind, at the exhibition ‘Volk – Heimat – Dorf’, Bauerngerätemuseum Hundszell, 2017. Photograph: Chloe Paver 105 Fig. 3.5 Part of a long table vitrine displaying objects dug up from the ‘Halde II’ rubbish dump at Buchenwald, on view at the permanent exhibition of the Gedenkstätte Buchenwald, from the mid-1990s to 2015. Photograph: Chloe Paver 110 Fig. 3.6 Charred toy panzer from the ruins of Dresden, placed at the head of a parade of toys at the Militärhistorisches Museum der Bundeswehr. Photograph: Chloe Paver 129 Fig. 3.7 Prosthetic hands and foot made by Oberammergau woodcarvers, shown at the exhibition ‘NS-Herrschaft und Krieg. Oberammergau 1933–1945’, 2015 at the Oberammergau Museum. Photograph: Chloe Paver 138 ix x LIST OF FIGURES Fig. 4.1 Nazi waste dug up from an allotment in 1998, Dokumentationszentrum Reichsparteitagsgelände. Photograph: Chloe Paver 157 Fig. 5.1 Army mug of a former German armed forces soldier with a dedication to his grandson, Berlin, after 1945, on display at the Deutsch-Russisches Museum. Photograph: Chloe Paver 177 Fig. 5.2 Touchable exhibit at the NS-Dokumentation Vogelsang: a souvenir made by an Ordensburg ‘veteran’. Photograph: Chloe Paver 186 Fig. 5.3 Oil painting of the building of the U-boat pen at Rekrum, a gift from one civic engineer to another, displayed at the Denkort Bunker Valentin. Photograph: Chloe Paver 196 Fig. 5.4 Handbag given to a non-Jewish neighbour by a Jewish woman about to be deported, Ehemalige Synagoge Haigerloch. Photograph: Chloe Paver 209 Fig. 5.5 Cloth bought from a Jewish shopkeeper in 1938 and kept in a non-Jewish household, donated to the exhibition ‘Legalisierter Raub’ in 2017. Photograph: Chloe Paver 217 Fig. 5.6 Typewriter used by a survivor to write about his experiences, Denkort Bunker Valentin. Photograph: Chloe Paver 226 Fig. 5.7 Cardboard box used by Sammy Maedge to protest at the lack of commemoration at the former Gestapo headquarters, on show at the NS-Dokumentationszentrum der Stadt Köln. Photograph: Chloe Paver 249 Fig. 5.8 Books by Albert Speer, donated to the Dokumentationszentrum Reichsparteitagsgelände for an exhibition on Speer’s self-mythologizing (2017). Photograph: Chloe Paver 253 CHAPTER 1 Introduction 1.1 OBJECTS IN FOCUS In 2016, when the Jüdisches Museum Hohenems in Austria cele- brated its 25th anniversary, it exhibited a miscellany of 25 objects, each accompanied by a curator’s note.1 The following year, the body in charge of museums at former concentration camps in the state of Brandenburg celebrated its 25th anniversary with a book subtitled ‘25 Jahre Stiftung Brandenburgische Gedenkstätten in 25 Objekten’. Each object was introduced by a different author in a short essay.2 With their echo of Neil MacGregor’s A History of the World in 100 Objects, such object miscellanies create a space for refection on museum prac- tices and on human relationships to objects.3 This can also take more 1 Hanno Loewy and Anika Reichwald (eds), Übrig.