Special exhibitions show three perspectives on Jewish life

Photo: © City of Hanau / Media Center, Text: The City of Hanau Press Office 

From exile to everyday life with antisemitism

Special exhibitions in Hanau show three perspectives on Jewish life

Starting next week, three special exhibitions in the foyer of Hanau's Neustadt Town Hall will illuminate Jewish history in all its facets: from survival in exile to confronting contemporary antisemitism. Organized by the Hanau Jewish Community and the Department of Culture, Urban Identity and International Relations of the City of Hanau, the exhibition will explore the many facets of Jewish history.

Mayor Dr. Maximilian Bieri and the Managing Director of the Hanau Jewish Community, Oliver Dainow, will open the exhibitions on Wednesday, May 14, at 7:30 p.m. Interested parties can then visit them daily until Friday, May 30, between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m., and on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.

The exhibition "Letters of Loss and Refuge" recounts the extraordinary life of Rudolf Schwab, a Hanau native whose family had already settled in Hanau in the early 16th century. His letters, found in a chest in South Africa, document the painful farewell to his homeland, the loss of his family in the Shoah, and the attempt to rebuild family ties across continents after the war. His long-standing friendship with a former Nazi Party member also raises complex questions of guilt and reconciliation. The traveling exhibition of the South African Jewish Museum was already on display in Hanau in 2018 and is based on the book From Things Lost by Professor Shirli Gilbert.

"There Are No Children Here" features 79 drawings by Thomas Geve, who survived several concentration camps as a teenager. His childlike yet precise images convey the everyday life of the camp, forced labor, and the horror of extermination from a child's perspective—a striking testament to the will to survive and the power of memory. The exhibition, featuring reproductions of the drawings, is on loan from the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorial Foundation and was arranged through the mediation of Werner Fromm of Langenselbold.

The exhibition "Yes, THAT is anti-Semitism!" makes current forms of anti-Semitism visible. Authentic anti-Semitic incidents from everyday life have been anonymized and artistically recreated. They form the basis for the RIAS Hessen exhibition. The exhibition draws attention to the experiences of those affected – and calls for empathy, solidarity, and social responsibility. The incidents were transformed into images and picture stories by Berlin-based illustrators Sophia Hirsch and Büke Schwarz.