Between Memory and Commemoration

Simona Kronfeld, Pedagogical Director, Massuah Institute for Holocaust Studies (Israel) was interviewed during the Israeli-German expert meeting "Video Testimonies – Using Interviews with Survivors of National Socialist Persecution in Historical Education Theoretical Approaches, Methods and Concepts for a Didactics of Oral Remembrance in Israel and Germany", organized by the foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future” (23rd - 25th November 2010).

From Birgit Marzinka

Holocaust Survivors’ Testimonies as an Educational Theme in Museums

In recent years, Massuah Museum has been opening new permanent exhibitions that focus more on the meaning of Holocaust memory than on the commemoration of Holocaust victims. Massuah’s principal mission is to introduce the Holocaust to young people, not only as a historical topic but also as a relevant issue that impacts on their lives and identity at the beginning of the twenty-first century.

The museum, part of the campus of Massuah Institute for Holocaust Studies, addresses itself to a population of teenagers and young people. In the course of rebuilding the museum - a process that began about a decade ago - we put together the concept of an interactive educational and historical museum that does not focus on presenting exhibits by means of a linear learning experience but rather, strives to stimulate the visitor’s thinking. The museum was built in the form of study centers within exhibit halls, allowing participants to construct their knowledge and invest memory with personal, cognitive, cultural, and intellectual meaning.

“Six Million Accusers—the State of Israel v. Adolf Eichmann” Exhibition

The role of education at a Massuah museum, is to build a bridge between history, memory, and identity. Teens focus on different questions at different times. The relevant questions change occasionally and are influenced by issues that lie at the core of the local and international public agenda. The “Six Million Accusers—the State of Israel v. Adolf Eichmann” exhibition, opened at Massuah Museum three years ago, challenges visitors to probe the meaning of Holocaust survivors’ testimonies, transcend their familiar and established thinking patterns, and test the personal current relevance of discussing survivors’ testimonies.

The exhibition focuses on the Holocaust as viewed through the prism of testimonies and evidence presented at the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem in 1961–1962. Apart from using these testimonies and evidence to present the web of historical events, the exhibition raises various aspects of the Holocaust, including moral and emotional aspects, that force the early twenty-first century visitor to confront the meaning of the Holocaust memory again and again.

The visit conflates two dimensions: the experiential dimension, experienced in an initial tour of the exhibition, and a cognitive dimension composed of personal or group research at the exhibition, using the multimedia system and the preparation of arguments for a “historical trial,” and, later on, a debate in the “courtroom.”

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Aya Ben Naftaly: "Between memory and commemoration Holocaust Survivors’ Testimonies as an Educational Theme in Museums the Eichmann Trial exhibition" Presented at Beyond Camps and Forced Labour: Current International Research, International Multidisciplinary Conference at the Imperial War Museum, London, 11-13 January 2006.

Audio interview with Simona Kronfeld

Presentation of the Massuah Museum and the work of Simona Kronfeld

Programme of the seminars and the pedagogical work of the Massuah Museum

Target group of the Massuah Museum

The Eichmann Trial as a crucial point in the Israeli society

Pedagogical role play about the Eichmann Trial

Opinion about the Israeli-German Expert Exchange

Missing confrontation with the German perpetrators history during the Nazi Regime