Stephan Jaeger The Second World War in the Twenty-First-Century Museum Media and Cultural Memory/ Medien und kulturelle Erinnerung Edited by Astrid Erll · Ansgar Nünning Editorial Board Aleida Assmann · Mieke Bal · Vita Fortunati · Richard Grusin · Udo Hebel Andrew Hoskins · Wulf Kansteiner · Alison Landsberg · Claus Leggewie Jeffrey Olick · Susannah Radstone · Ann Rigney · Michael Rothberg Werner Sollors · Frederik Tygstrup · Harald Welzer Volume 26 Stephan Jaeger The Second World War in the Twenty-First- Century Museum From Narrative, Memory, and Experience to Experientiality An electronic version of this book is freely available, thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched. KU is a collaborative initiative designed to make high quality books Open Access. More information about the initiative and links to the Open Access version can be found at www.knowledgeunlatched.org Knowledge Unlatched The Open Access book is available at www.degruyter.com ISBN 978-3-11-066106-4 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-066441-6 e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-066133-0 ISSN 1613-8961 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 Licence. For details go to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. Library of Congress Control Number: 2020901137 Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2020 Stephan Jaeger, published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston Cover Image: Installation ‘bomb hail,’ aerial bombs, missiles, and shells, permanent exhibition Militärhistorisches Museum der Bundeswehr, © MHM/Andrea Ulke, 2019. Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck www.degruyter.com ForPriya Acknowledgements This book is the resultofmore than nine years of research into the narrativesand representations of war and history museums, which originated in the summers of 2009 and 2010.While visitingmuseums in Berlin, London, Warsaw, and Kra- ków and looking for patterns in representations of the Second World Warindif- ferent historiographical media, Ibecame fascinated with visitors’‘readings’ of museum space in contrast to readersoftext and viewers of film. Irealized the potential in using aestheticand narratological reading techniques to analyze the reception of exhibitions as well as the constructive and performative nature of collective memories. This eventuallyled me to conductfieldwork in 157 differ- ent museums and independent exhibitions on both of the world wars, the Hol- ocaust and othergenocides, human rights, warand military history,and some more general history museums and exhibitions. These exhibitions werelocated in fifteen countries,and the fieldwork was conducted between July 2010 and Au- gust 2019. The research for this book was generouslysupported through an Insight Grant by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and through several internal grants facilitated by the UniversityofManitoba. This book would not have been written in this form without the help of anumber of people. This includes curators and staff in the various museums in which I conducted my field research. Iwould like particularlytothank Gorch Pieken, An- drea Ulke, MonikaBednarek, Klaus Hesse, Thomas Lutz, Dean Oliver, Jeff Noakes,Mélanie Morin-Pelletier,and Anna Mullerinthis regard. All twelve coremuseums analyzed in this book weregraciouslywilling to assist me with numerous questions and allowed for the reproduction of photographs from their exhibitions. Ipresented ideas that made it into this book at around twenty conferences and guest lectures, and in doing so receivedvaluable feedback from discussants and anonymouspeerreviewers of my museum research. The ideas receivedover the years from the German Studies Association (GSA) “Warand Violence” inter- disciplinary network, which Ico-chaired between 2013 and 2017,wereinvaluable. Ialso cannot thank my colleagues enough at the University of Wisconsin-Madi- son and at the Universität Trier,whereeach Ispent long spans of my year-long research leave in 2017– 2018 and found the quiet and inspiration to finallywrite the majority of this manuscript.Aparticular thanks goes to Sabine Gross,Marc Silberman, WolfgangKlooß, Ralf Hertel, and Herbert Uerlings. It would be impossible to name all of my colleagues, friends, and family members who helped enable the completion of this project.Inparticular, I OpenAccess. ©2020 Stephan Jaeger,published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the CreativeCommons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110664416-001 VIII Acknowledgements want to thank Adam Muller, Susanne Vees-Gulani, JörgEchternkamp, and Ka- thrin Maurer for their support,ideas, and encouragement.Additionally, without the supportive atmosphere from all my colleagues in my homedepartment,the Department of German and Slavic Studies at the University of Manitoba, the com- pletionofthis project would have taken much longer.Especiallyinspiring to me werethe discussions with my graduatestudents, in particularErin Johnston- Weiss, Emma Mikuska-Tinman, Esther Hein, and Olurotimi K. Oni. Emma Mikus- ka-Tinman and Erin Johnston-Weiss wereabsolutelyinstrumental in proofread- ing and editing this manuscriptinits various stages. My gratitude goes to Astrid Erll and AnsgarNünning for agreeing to publish this book in their Media and Cultural Memory series and to Manuela Gerlof, Lydia J. White, Stella Diedrich, and all the De Gruyter staff for their support and efficiency in makingthis publication possible. Finally, this book is dedicated to my life partnerPriya. Without her patience and unwavering support whenever this endeavor seemed to take over our lives, I could not have completed it. Contents Abbreviations XI List of Illustrations XIII Prologue 1 Chapter 1: TheSecond World Warinthe Twenty-First-Century Museum 8 . The Museum betweenHistoryand Cultural Memory 8 . The Second World WarbetweenNational and Transnational Memory 13 . Museum Types and the Second World War 21 . Selection of MuseumsAnalyzed 32 Chapter 2: The Medium of the Museum 40 . Museum Space and the ‘Ideal’ Visitor 40 . Experientiality 47 Chapter 3: Restricted Experientiality 61 . The Canadian WarMuseum in Ottawa 62 . Warsaw Rising Museum 77 . The Imperial WarMuseum in London 88 Chapter 4: PrimaryExperientiality 94 . The National WWII Museum in New Orleans 95 . The Oskar Schindler’sEnamel FactoryinKraków 107 . The Bastogne WarMuseum 116 Chapter 5: SecondaryExperientiality 128 . The Bundeswehr MilitaryHistoryMuseum in Dresden 129 . The Imperial WarMuseum North in Manchester 150 . The Topography of Terror in Berlin 160 Chapter 6: TheTransnational 172 . The German-Russian Museum in Berlin-Karlshorst 172 . The Museum of the Second World WarinGdańsk 182 . The House of European HistoryinBrussels 203 X Contents Chapter 7: TheHolocaust and Perpetration in WarMuseums 221 Chapter 8: Total War, Air War, and Suffering 265 Chapter 9: ArtinSecond World WarMuseums 292 Conclusion 306 Bibliography 314 Index 341 Abbreviations BWM=BastogneWar MuseuminBastogne, Belgium CWM=Canadian WarMuseuminOttawa, Canada DRM =Deutsch-Russisches Museum(German-Russian Museum) in Berlin-Karlshorst, Germany HEH =House of European History in Brussels, Belgium IWM =ImperialWar Museum IWML=Imperial WarMuseuminLondon, United Kingdom IWMN=Imperial WarMuseumNorth in Manchester,United Kingdom MHM =Militärhistorisches Museumder Bundeswehr (Bundeswehr MilitaryHistory Museum) in Dresden, Germany MIIWŚ =Muzeum II Wojny Światowej(Museumofthe Second World War) in Gdańsk, Poland New Orleans WWII Museum=The National WWII MuseuminNew Orleans, USA OSF=FabrykaEmalia OskaraSchindlera(Oskar Schindler Enamel Factory) in Kraków,Poland (permanent exhibition Kraków – czas okupacji 1939–1945 = Kraków under Nazi Occupation 1939–1945) ToT=Topographie des Terrors (Topography of Terror) in Berlin, Germany USHMM =UnitedStates Holocaust MemorialMuseuminWashington, D.C., USA WRM =Muzeum Powstania Warszawskiego (WarsawRising Museum) in Warsaw,Poland OpenAccess. ©2020 Stephan Jaeger,published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the CreativeCommons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110664416-002 List of Illustrations Fig. 1: Section “WarofAnnihilation” with “Toycar dug out from under the rubble.” Perma- nent exhibition. MuzeumIIWojny Światowej (Museumofthe Second World War), Gdańsk (Photo: Author,2017). 2 Fig. 2: Destroyed Gama toytankopposite to parade of wartoys. Permanent exhibition. Mi- litärhistorisches Museumder Bundeswehr (Bundeswehr MilitaryHistory Museum), Dresden (Photo:Author,2013, courtesy of Militärhistorisches Museumder Bundes- wehr). 4 Fig. 3: Entrance area in exhibition “Germans in Warsaw.” Muzeum Powstania Warszawskie- go (WarsawRising Museum), Warsaw (Photo: Author,2013, courtesyofMuzeum Powstania Warszawskiego). 18 Fig. 4: Opening section of gallery “Forged in Fire: The Second World War, 1931–1945.”- Per manent exhibition. Canadian WarMuseum, Ottawa (Photo: Author,2015, courtesyof Canadian WarMuseum). 65 Fig. 5: “Ther Air Wa ” section with subsections “Terror from Below” and “Bomber Com- mand” in background, gallery “The Second World War: 1931–1945.” Permanent ex- hibition. Canadian WarMuseum, Ottawa (Photo: Author,2015, courtesyofCanadian WarMuseum). 68 Fig. 6: Part of section “Airdrops.” Permanent exhibition. MuzeumPowstania Warszawskiego