92 "#$%#&' )*)#$'&+' ,-./ +& . (1-) Vasco Kretschmann Entan- gled he- ritage. Wrocław’s German-Jewish and Polish-Jewish history exhibitions, #$%& – %&#&
345: .-.17-8/-..;--..--.-.8-/< >'?@* A&B%?@CD'++ E+%'+F$BG CB&H%'FB 93
Wrocław has a very rich multicultural history including that of a vibrant Vasco Kretschmann and large German-Jewish community until its destruction by the Holocaust studied History, Public History and Political (Shoah) and the Second World War. After the end of the war almost the entire Science in Berlin and population of the former German city was replaced and Wrocław became Warsaw. He completed . a PhD at Freie Univers- a part of Poland. Shortly after .O81, the immigration of Polish Jews brought !!#$%&' (# (#)*+,-#. /# the number in the Lower Silesian capital to almost ten percent of the total book Breslau museal (to population. It was one of the largest Jewish communities in all the Polish 0%#120' /3%4# (#)*+56# shows how the museums regions (see Ziątkowski, ,---; Lenarcik, ,-.-; Friedla, ,-.8). Because of of German Breslau and hostility from the government and some parts of society, however, this new 78' /3#9&8:<=#%>3 0 !%4# local history between community left the country in subsequent decades. In most of the old and +?**#<(4#)*+*-#@2&&%(!'A# new territories of the People’s Republic of Poland the Jewish heritage was he works at the Museum abandoned, declined or forgotten. But a shift took place in the early .O<-s. ]e of Upper Silesia in point of origin was Kraków (Cracow) were Polish-Jewish history was made Ratingen near Düsseldorf visible in the reopened exhibitions of the Old Synagogue of Kazimierz (.O<-) and during the annual Jewish Culture Festival, since .O<< (see Passowicz and Szczygieł, ,--1: O‒..; Murzyn-Kupisz, ,--O: ;/,‒;/1). For the }rst time in many years the Jewish heritage of Poland was presented publicly again. ]is was the }rst sign of a new approach to the Jewish heritage by Polish intel- lectuals and the authorities. Focusing on the situation in Wrocław, which, like Kraków, is a major Polish city, the rediscovery of its Jewish past gets even more complex. , As a result of an almost complete change of inhabitants after Second World War the local Jewish heritage inevitably constituted a part of the rejected “foreign” German traces in the city. Revealing the Jewish history of Wrocław meant the discovery of the city’s German past – a very inuential chapter of the city’s development that the communist authorities tried to deny as far as possible (see ]um, ,-..: ./.‒;/O). But in the .O<-s this harsh political attitude towards the Jewish and German past lost its sharpness, when the Old Jewish Cemetery of Wrocław was rescued shortly before its }nal demolition. A restoration and research project gave insight into the environ- ment and biographies of Wrocław’s pre-war Jewish community. A series of history exhibitions during the .O<-s and .OO-s made this rediscovered chapter publicly visible and reconnected it to the manifestations of Wrocław’s bygone Jewish Museum of the .O,-s and .O;-s. A look at the evolution of the city’s Jewish history exhibitions in the ,- th century shows astonishing continuities in a place that was shaped by radical changes. ]is article examines how the museums of German Breslau and Polish Wrocław have dealt with the city’s Jewish past over the last century.
As in most cities and villages of the new Western and Northern territories that Poland gained after World War 55, almost the entire German population of Wrocław had to leave their hometown. In the .O;-s Wrocław had a population of roughly 7;-,---; less than , were Polish. Between .O81 and .O8/, more than ,--,--- German inhabitants were resettled to the Allied occupation zones in Germany. By .O8O, around ,1-,--- Poles from central Poland and the former Polish eastern provinces had moved into Wrocław. In .O<- the city counted more than 7--,--- inhabitants again (see Maciejewska, ,--,: Vienna in . In .'?@* A&B%?@CD'++ E+%'+F$BG CB&H%'FB 95 and documents on people and events to showcases with various ceremonial objects. A large private loan came from Max Pinkus (.<1/‒.O;8), a renowned collector of Judaica and Silesica objects. 1 ]e central point of the exhibition was a reerected Bimah (a podium for Torah reading) from the former Synagogue of Zülz in Upper Silesia (now Biała Prudnicka). ]e synagogue was closed in .O.8 because the community had disappeared. References to Jewish history in Silesia were contained in historic documents relating to Jewish real estate from the Middle Ages and one pertaining to the Prussian Equality Act from the early .O th century. Several maps served to explain the development of Jew- ish settlements in Silesia. A portrait of Duke Henry 5> of Silesia ( Henryk 5> Probus ), .; th century, recalled his protection of the Jews against anti-Semitic attacks and a memorial cross for the Franciscan Johann Capistrano pointed to the public burning of Jews on Solny Square in .8O;. After the exhibition was closed the society put its collection on display in the rooms of the Castle Museum, although it was not a part of the ocial tour. ]e society continued to administer the collection while the public museum 7 was responsible for its maintenance. ]e society conducted scienti}c research and was in contact with other Jewish museums. Together with the Jewish Museum in Berlin the society from Breslau supported the historian Majer Bałaban in founding a Jewish Museum in the Polish city of Lviv (Lwów), which opened in .O;8 (see Bałaban, .O,O; Goldstein and Dresdner, .O;1; Kohlbauer-Fritz, .OO8/O1: .8,; Hoppe, ,--,: ,/1). For reasons that were undoubtedly political the collection was removed from the Castle Museum in November .O;; and transferred by the Jewish Museum Society to rooms in the Jewish Orphanage at today’s Grabiszyńska Street 7. – 71, where it was presented as a Jewish Museum for }ve years. As the historian Abraham Ascher mentioned in his book A Community under Siege. *e Jews of Breslau under Nazism (,--/), the Jewish Museum comprised several rooms and in October and November .O;8 showed the }rst-ever exhibition in Germany of works by exclusively Jewish artists. ]is temporary exhibi- tion consisted of over a hundred works by more than thirty-six artists and had a large number of visitors (see Ascher, ,--/: O,; Stolarska-Fronia, ,--<: ,<<‒, Lists of objects lent by Max Pinkus from Neustadt (Upper Silesia, today Prudnik) are preserved in the National Museum of Wrocław. See Muzeum Narodowe we Wrocławiu: Schlesisches Museum für Kunstgewerbe und Altertümer , I/;<-: /O – <1. For documents about the cooperation between the Jewish Museum Society and the museum of the city see Muzeum Narodowe we Wrocławiu: Schlesisches Museum für Kunstgewerbe und Altertümer, I/;<-: .81‒.1,. ]e Parocheth is described in the catalogue of .O,O under number .8< (see Hintze, .O,O: ;O). 96 "#$%#&' )*)#$'&+' ,-./ +& . (1-) Rediscovering Jewish heritage in the late People’s Republic Until the .O<-s, German-Jewish and even Polish-Jewish history was neglected by Wrocław’s museums during the decades of the People’s Republic. Despite a few art exhibitions the large Polish-Jewish community had no chance to manifest its heritage in the city’s public sphere. In .O8< a large propaganda show was supposed to demonstrate the Polish traditions and achievements of the region, but a Jewish exhibition hall at this Exhibition of the Recovered Territories was cancelled for political reasons just a few days before the opening (see Szaynok, .OO7: ,- – ,,; Tyszkiewicz, .OO/: .., – ../). ]e political paradigm of a homogenous nation state banned presentations of Jewish history for decades. But in the .O<-s a limited amount of free historical interpretation became possible. ]e most striking example was the temporary exhibition *e Jews of Wrocław ")($ – "#-( which opened in the }nal year of the People’s Republic, in March .O In .OO. the Historical Museum took over the Jewish Cemetery as a branch of the Architecture Museum. While most Jewish Cemeteries in Poland were given back to today’s communities, the Old Jewish Cemetery of Wrocław remained part of the museum (see Jagielski, .OO1: ,,O – ,;,; Tyszka, ,-.1: 8/‒8<). ]e Historical Museum has played a key role in presenting the biographies of inuential Jewish citizens of Breslau, along with others, in the permanent exhibition of busts of famous “Wrocławians” in the Old City Hall (since .OO/). ]e busts include scientists and Nobel Prize winners like Fritz Haber (.<7< – .O;8) and Max Born (.<<, – .O/-) as well as the founder of the German Workers Party in .<7;, Ferdinand Lassalle (.<,1 – .<78) and the Polish-Jewish scientist Ludwik Hirszfeld (.<<8‒.O18) (see Łagiewski, ,--;). ]e presentation of post-war Jewish life in Wrocław took place in smaller temporary exhibitions on the history of Jews in Lower Silesia "#-(‒"#-) O and the Jewish ]eatre that existed in Wrocław from .O87 until the anti-Jewish campaign of .O7<. Once more in the }nal months of the People’s Republic and only ,- years after the sudden end of the theatre a colourful exhibition in the Old City Hall celebrated the Jewish stage. Large format photographs of stage scenes were accompanied by information boards on the history of the Jewish theatre, its performance program, stage settings and actors. .- ]is early exhibition was renewed in ,--< on a bigger scale. .. After the political transformation the extraordinary projects of the late .O<-s laid the ground for an intense dialogue with history. In the .OO-s German-Jewish and Polish-Jewish heritage became part of the public discourse about Wrocław’s past. A }rst permanent exhibition on "$$$ years of Wrocław opened ,--O in the Royal Palace, a branch of the City Museum. It has constituted a major step forward in the visualization of a multicultural picture of the city’s heritage. ]e building constitutes a remaining wing of the Palace of the Prussian kings; it housed the Castle Museum from .O,7 to .O81 and after the war an Ethnographic and Archaeological museum until .OOO/,--8. With nearly ;,--- objects in ,1 rooms this large exhibition tells Wrocław’s history from the Middle Ages to the present (see Łagiewski and Okólska, ,--O: O‒./). Early Jewish history is represented in the second room Under the rule of the Piasts with the “oldest Jewish gravestone in Poland” from .,-; and a note that in .81;, after a public burning of Jews on Solny Square, all Jews were expelled from the city, until it was conquered by the Prussians in the .< th century. ]e Jewish past is most visible in the room First World War, ]e }rst exhibition catalogue was published in Germany (Łagiewski, .OO-). ]e }rst catalogue in Poland was published in .OO8 for the exhibition’s second presentation (Łagiewski, .OO8). „Żydzi na Dolnym Śląsku w latach "#-( – "#-) ”, Old City Hall, .OO7. ]e exhibition „ W obiektywie Zdzisława Mozera. Teatr Żydowski we Wrocławiu ” presented ,;< exhibits and was seen by 1,<-< people during the .. days it was open. ]e concept papers, drafts of a catalogue and photographs have been preserved in the archive of the City Museum. See Muzeum Miejskie we Wrocławiu: Muzeum Historyczne we Wrocławiu , 8/.<1. A second presentation about the Jewish ]eatre was Teatr Żydowski na Dolnym Śląsku w latach "#-4 – "#4) , Old City Hall, ,--<. 98 "#$%#&' )*)#$'&+' ,-./ +& . (1-) Weimar Republic, Jewish Community . A showcase contains exhibits on the Jewish community of Breslau, among other things photographs of Jewish personalities and various religious items like Hanukkah candelabras from the New Synagogue, a loan from today’s Jewish community collection. In the next room, Nazi dictatorship and Second World War , the discrimination against and destruction of the Jewish community are slightly represented by a picture frame with anti-Jewish propaganda posters, a photo of the “burn- ing dome of the New Synagogue, .O;<” and a broken marble board from the White Stork Synagogue. Surprisingly, the }nal destruction of Breslau’s Jewish community is not visible in this show. Blue and white prison clothes with P symbols from the nearby Gross-Rosen Concentration Camp relate only to the Polish victims of Nazi terror, even though the camp had Jewish prisoners too (see Łagiewski and Okólska, ,--O: ,//‒,<7). ., Additionally the following two rooms about Polish Wrocław in the People’s Republic mention neither the up to ./,--- Polish Jews who settled temporarily in Wrocław between .O81 and .O8< nor the anti-Jewish campaign of .O7<, when many Jews left the country. An important chapter of Wrocław’s post-war history is missing here. As historian Sabine Oe mentioned in the examples she gave of exhibitions in Austria and Germany, today’s Jewish museums tell us less about past Jewish life than about the presence of the non-Jewish historical culture in Central Europe (Oe, ,---: 88). Where they are not run by a Jewish community, these institutions are mostly places of remembrance, commemorating the murdered and displaced, because they are an expression of a cultural experi- ence and a symbolic practice of interpretation and explanation of the past. ]e present Jewish community of Wrocław is the second largest in Poland, but with approximately ;-- members (see Friedla, ,-.8: 8,7) it is }nancially incapable of running a Jewish museum. ]e community continues the tradi- tion of Jewish life in the city by maintaining a Jewish elementary school at Żelazna Street, the second Jewish cemetery of Wrocław at Lotnicza Street and the White Stork Synagogue, which it regained in .OO7 in a devastated condition (see Meng, ,-..: ,;O‒,8.). With the support of a foundation by the Norwegian-Jewish artist Bente Kahan the restoration of the White Stork Synagogue was completed in ,-.-. Since then the }rst oor of the building has been host to the permanent exhibition History Reclaimed. Jewish Life in Wrocław and Lower Silesia .; . For the }rst time, the exhibition of the Bente Kahan Foundation and the Jewish Studies Department at the University of Wrocław tells Jewish history from the }rst settlement in the early Middle Ages until its recent history in a “free and democratic Poland”. On ,, panels with coloured pictures and texts, but without objects, History Reclaimed focuses equally on the pre-war and the post-war history of Jewish life in Wrocław. ]e “full-scale anti-semitic campaign” of .O7<, “when several thousand Jews left Wrocław and Lower Silesia” is mentioned here on a separate panel. Today the City Museum and the Bente Kahan Foundation continue the presentations on Jewish history and culture, which started in the .O,-s with the Jewish-run Jewish Museum Society. ]e description refers to the exhibition’s presentation before it was partially revised in ,-.7. „Historia odzyskana. Życie Żydów we Wrocławiu i na Dolnym Śląsku ”, since ,-.- in the White Stork Synagogue (Fundacja Bente Kahan). >'?@* A&B%?@CD'++ E+%'+F$BG CB&H%'FB 99 Conclusion Wrocław’s museums mirror an exceptional process in building up continu- ity by re-establishing former traditions. Exhibitions are multidimensional products of cultural practices; they are expressions of their producer’s his- torical consciousness and shape the popular culture of cities and countries; so they are mediums for the enduring reinvention of societies by describing their history. But we should keep in mind that the social outreach of history museums is uncertain. A museum never mirrors the views of a society in general, but rather is a set of interpretations by museum producers. Cultural and political elites are the visible supporters of these approaches to history, while the perceptions of local inhabitants can only be inferred from guest books or survey results. ]at is why it is dicult to measure the outreach of museum presentations on people’s historical awareness. In comparison to books, exhibitions have the potential to manifest history visually and to provide a spatial experience. In the reinvention of Wrocław after .O ]e reinvention of Wrocław after .O81 was without historical precedent, but throughout the ,-th century the city reinvented itself more than once. A study of exhibitions as indicators and generators reveals the historical culture of various periods in Breslau/Wrocław (see Kretschmann, ,-.7: ..; – .,8). 100 "#$%#&' )*)#$'&+' ,-./ +& . (1-) Undoubtedly the heritage of German and Polish Jews is deeply entangled in the capital of Lower Silesia. ]e strong continuity of places is the most visible proof here. But the interlocking of these two groups becomes ques- tionable when it comes to the individual consciousness of today’s community members and citizens. ]e various exhibitions on biographies and families of Breslau’s Jews cannot compensate for the fact that in .O81 – .O8/ a radical break in the city population took place. Mirosława Lenarcik remarks appropriately: “However, one cannot avoid the impression that […] they [the German Jews] are not anymore part of the city. […] Simply, there is no emotional relation between these two worlds because the ancestors of the Jews living now in Wrocław came from ]e Ukraine, Lithuania, and Poland. ]ey can celebrate the achievements of Breslau’s Jewish community as part of their Jewishness, but they do not feel attached personally to them” (Lenarcik, ,-.-: ,.O). ]e German-Jews of Breslau are not part of individual and community memories, because the biographical and cultural ties are missing. However, they are a part of the local history manifestations. After 8- years of the absence of any historical references to them, the discovery of the Old Jewish Cementery, followed by exhibitions and books, has put them back on the city’s cultural map. ª5ª«54¬®¯°² ". Jahresbericht des Vereins Jüdisches Museum E.V. zu Breslau: &#. März "#&) bis 6$. Sept. "#&# (Breslau: ]. Schatzky ®¬ .O,O). Arkwright, Kenneth James. Jenseits des Überlebens : Von Breslau nach Austra- lien , ed. Katharina Friedla and Uwe Neumärker (Berlin: Stiftung Den- kmal für die Ermordeten Juden Europas ,-..). Ascher, Abraham. A Community under Siege: *e Jews of Breslau under Nazism (Stanford: Stanford University Press ,--/). In Polish: Oblężona społecz- ność: Wrocławscy Żydzi w czasach nazizmu (Wrocław: Via Nova ,--O). Ascher Barnstone, Deborah. “]e Breslau Jewish Museum: ‘Disintegration of the Manifest World’,” in Journal of Modern Jewish Studies .,/; (,-.;), 81O – 8/<. Bałaban, Majer. 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