Carinthia Museum

talk about it

"Talking about it": exhibition at the Carinthia Museum in Klagenfurt with memories of National Socialism and the Holocaust from contemporary witnesses.

(Bild: LPD/Peter Just)

Many survivors were unable to "talk about it" for a long time. 14 contemporary witnesses shed light on National Socialism and the Holocaust. Everyone should see the exhibition of the same name at the Carinthia Museum. Here you can read touching insights into special (survival) life stories.

"On November 11, 1938, the Nazis rounded up Jews. We knew they would come to us too. We were afraid. A lot of fear. What would the future bring?" recalled Richard Schoen in a video interview that is currently being shown in the traveling exhibition "talking about it" by "erinnern.at" at the Kärnten Museum in Klagenfurt. "There was a knock on the door. The SA came for my brother and me. They took us into a large room with 300 or 500 people. At some point my brother said out loud: 'What have we Jews done wrong? They took him away immediately. I wanted to help him, wanted to say something, but my mind said: 'No, it won't help. They'll kill me too. That was the last time I saw my brother. I still often feel guilty today," said Richard Schoen, his voice choked with tears.

14 (survival) life stories of contemporary witnesses of National Socialism and the Holocaust, who have since died, are preserved in videos, photos and on text panels to serve as a reminder of the millions murdered and a memorial to the inhuman events for all those who come after.

The exhibition "Talking about it" sees itself as a door opener for topics from the time of this dictatorship. Jehudit Hübner, for example, remembers anti-Semitism at school: "I didn't eat much breakfast, so the girl sitting next to me always ate with me. And I told her when she didn't know an answer in class. But one day she suddenly said: "You're Jewish! I can't sit next to you!"

'Jew' was written on our shop window. And an SA man stood in front of it and asked potential customers: 'Do you know that this is a Jewish store? Do you really want to go in there?

Dorli Neale erinnert sich an ihre Kindheit, als ihre Eltern ein Bekleidungsgeschäft führten

Elisabeth Jäger was active in the resistance; in the video, she recalls the humiliating admission procedure in the concentration camp: "In Ravensbrück, all our body hair was shaved off. They took my name, I was given a number. 68393, so I had to report myself from then on."

"Visible Remembrance - Memorials for Victims of the Nazi Regime in Carinthia/Koroška" by Nadja Danglmaier - A documentation of 250 memorials to resistance and persecution in the Nazi regime in Carinthia/Koroška and at the same time the development of the culture of remembrance from 1945 to the present day. The publication is available in the store of the kärnten.museum in Klagenfurt.

(Bild: StudienVerlag)

250 memorials to resistance and persecution in Carinthia
"Visible Remembrance - Signs of Remembrance for Victims of the Nazi Regime in Carinthia/Koroška" is the title of Nadja Danglmaier's book, which is available from the Carinthia Museum in Klagenfurt. On 348 pages, the author documents 250 memorials to resistance and persecution under the Nazi regime in Carinthia/Koroška - commemorative plaques, street names, artistic interventions - and thus makes the development of the culture of remembrance from 1945 to the present day comprehensible. 

Until February 16 at the Carinthia Museum
The exhibition, which is highly recommended with free admission until February 16, is thought-provoking, saddening and saddening, but also comforting, for example when David Weiss says in the video interview: "I had feelings of hatred, of course. Many of my family were murdered in Auschwitz. But when I meet someone who has a name that I can talk to, I always ask myself: can we find something in common? And then I feel: No, I don't hate you."