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ABSTRACT
With the renovation of the building and the redesign of the Wien Museum's (the City Museum of Vienna) permanent exhibition, the Nazi period is now finally being told as part of the city's history after decades of neglect. The education department was thus faced with the task of including these important and multifaceted topics in our educational programs while still carrying out our everyday work. Based mainly on conversations with experts we distilled five insights that guide our programs: (1) engaging with the students’ lifeworld, (2) working with biographies, (3) covering multiple perspectives, (4) highlighting personal agency within a totalitarian system, and (5) connecting to local sites. After discussing each of these principles, this article explains how we implemented them in our work, using two examples, namely a two-hour school program and a school project lasting several months.
Acknowledgement
We thank Henning Deters for the translation, as well as the English editing.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 “Nazi” is short hand for National Socialism and National Socialist.
2 The Wien Museum is a general-purpose metropolitan museum with a wide range of collections and exhibitions – from the history of the city to art, fashion and modern culture, from the earliest settlements to the present day. See more: https://www.wienmuseum.at/en/en/about-us/mission-statement [26.06.2023].
3 Heidemarie Uhl, “Das ‘erste Opfer’: der österreichische Opfermythos und seine Transformationen in der Zweiten Republik,” Österreichische Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft, no.30/1 (2001): 19.
4 The revelations of Kurt Waldheim’s past in the National Socialist German Wehrmacht was crucial in the Austrian presidential election campaign in 1986. In the post-war era, Waldheim acted as Secretary-General of the United Nations and Austrian Federal President. The “Waldheim Affair” became a turning point in the remembrance of Nazi crimes and put Austria's responsibility at the centre. See “1986: Die Waldheimaffäre,” Haus der Geschichte Österreichs (HGÖ), last modified June 26, 2023, https://hdgoe.at/waldheim_affair_1986_en. The year 1988 was a historical-political turning point. On the occasion of “year of remembrance,” Austria for the first time formally apologized for the crimes Austrians had committed in the Nazi era. See Uhl, “Opfermythos,” 25.
5 Uhl, “Opfermythos,” 25.
6 Susan Plawecki developed the concepts and led the discussions as the person responsible for school programs in the Wien Museum's education department. The educator Ursula Arendt accompanied the entire process and contributed significantly to the development of the concepts. Farina Asche was involved as a research fellow for a limited period of time, primarily in the development and implementation of the extended school project as well as in some of the conversations in Vienna and Berlin. Nathaniel Prottas and Lisa Noggler-Gürtler were also involved in the discussions at the beginning.
7 Hartheim Castle was one of six euthanasia institutions of the Nazi regime from 1940-1944, where nearly 30,000 people were murdered. Today it is a place of education and remembrance.
8 For more information on the Workshop see: https://hdgoe.at/perspektiven_holocaust-education_museen [26.06.2023].
9 Noa Mkayton, “‘The great danger is tears … ’ – Die Bedeutung von Empathie und Emotionen im Holocaustunterricht,” Zeitschrift für Didaktik der Gesellschaftswissenschaften, no.1 (2011): 28.
10 Meeting with Bernhard Mühleder at the Memorial Mauthausen on May 25, 2021.
11 Joachim Frank “Weitgehend ohne Moral. Ein Gespräch mit dem Sozialpsychologen Harald Welzer über fragwürdige Traditionen des Erinnerns und wie auch Jugendliche für Geschichte symbolisiert werden können,” Frankfurter Rundschau, May 16, 2012, https://www.fr.de/kultur/weitgehend-ohne-moral-11362063.html.
12 Christiane Bertram “Lebendige Erinnerung oder Erinnerungskonserven und ihre Wirksamkeit im Hinblick auf historisches Lernen,” BIOS, 1+2 (2015): 178–199.
13 Gudrun Brockhaus “‘Bloß nicht moralisieren!’ Emotionale Prozesse in der pädagogischen Auseinandersetzung mit dem Nationalsozialismus,” Bayrische Landeszentrale für politische Bildungsarbeit, Einsichten und Perspektiven, no.1 (2008): 31.
14 Meeting with Bernhard Mühleder at the Memorial Mauthausen on May 25, 2021.
15 George E Hein, Learning in the Museum (London, New York: Routledge, 1998). According to George E Hein, constructivist learning in the museum means focusing on the needs and conditions of the learners and perceiving them as active participants in the dynamic learning process. In an interactive education process, the aim is to enable new experiences. The focus is on “strengthening the visitors' ability to interpret things for themselves.” See: Luise Reitstätter and Karolin Galter, Recht auf Museum? Zehn Erkenntnisse zu musealen Öffentlichkeitskonzepten und deren Wahrnehmung (Heidelberg: ART-Dok – Publikationsplattform Kunst- und Bildwissenschaften, Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg, 2022), 29.
16 Conversation with Peter Larndorfer 5.11.2020. He is a historian, educator and pedagogue at the Austrian organization Gedenkdienst and at erinnern.at.
17 The learning material of erinnern.at is also fundamentally based on biographies. One example is the learning material “Who is to blame for the death of Edith Winkler?” The learning material provides a comprehensive and low-threshold insight into the topic, but the 42 biographical cards in the material also allow for a more in-depth discussion. See here: https://www.erinnern.at/lernmaterialien/lernmaterialien/201ewer-ist-schuld-am-tod-von-edith-winkler-201c-voelkermord-als-gesellschaftliche-verantwortung [26.06.2023].
18 For more information see here: https://lebenswege.mauthausen-memorial.org/material-fuer-lehrende [26.06.2023].
19 Noa Mkayton, “The great danger is tears … ,” 28.
20 Empathy will be understood here according to a concept by Paul Ekman as a cognitive response to the emotion of another. Cognitive empathy enables the learner to recognize what the other person is feeling. See: Mkayton, “The great danger is tears … ,” 31.
21 Franziska Göpner “Biografische Zugänge in der historisch-politischen Bildung an Gedenkstätten,” Geschichte bewusst sein.de, 2015, https://geschichte-bewusst-sein.de/biografische-zugaenge-in-der-historisch-politischen-bildung-an-gedenkstaetten/ [26.06.2023].
22 Aleida Assmann and Juliane Brauer, “Bilder, Gefühle, Erwartungen. Über die emotionale Dimension von Gedenkstätten und den Umgang von Jugendlichen mit dem Holocaust,” Geschichte und Gesellschaft, 37/1 (2011): 85.
23 Conversation with Petra Zwaka 4.11.2020.
24 Noa Mkayton, “Holocaustunterricht mit Kindern – Überlegungen zu einer frühen Erstbegegnung mit dem Thema Holocaust im Grundschul- und Unterstufenunterricht,” Medaon – Magazin für jüdisches Leben in Forschung und Bildung, no.9 (2011): 1-9.
25 Bertram,“Lebendige Erinnerung,” 184. See also: https://www.holocaustremembrance.com/de/resources/educational-materials/empfehlungen-zum-lehren-und-lernen-ueber-den-holocaust [26.06.2023].
26 Mkayton, “Holocaustunterricht mit Kindern.”
27 Institut für interdisziplinäre Konflikt- und Gewaltforschung (IKG), Memo. Multidimensionaler Erinnerungsmonitor. Studie V. Bielefeld, 2022. https://www.stiftung-evz.de/assets/1_Was_wir_fördern/Bilden/Bilden_fuer_lebendiges_Erinnern/MEMO_Studie/MEMO_5_2022/evz_brosch_memo_2022_de_final.pdf, 45.
28 Daniela Döring, “Perspektiven,” in Räume des Wissens. Die Basisausstellung im Forum Wissen, ed. Marie Luisa Allemeyer, Joachim Baur, and Christian Vogel (Göttingen: Wallstein, 2022), 150-159.
29 This always bears the risk of the essentialization of communities. See: Bose 2016 in Döring “Perspektiven,” 158.
30 The MEMO Study 2023 showed that younger participants were critical of the statement that the perspectives of groups persecuted under National Socialism were sufficiently represented in the current culture of remembrance and were in favor of a stronger representation of representatives of formerly persecuted groups in the culture of remembrance. See: Institut für interdisziplinäre Konflikt und Gewaltforschung (IKG)/ Forschungsinstitut Gesellschaftlicher Zusammenhalt (FGZ), Memo. Multidimensionaler Erinnerungsmonitor. Jugendstudie. Bielefeld, 2023. https://www.stiftung-evz.de/assets/1_Was_wir_fördern/Bilden/Bilden_fuer_lebendiges_Erinnern/MEMO_Studie/2023_MEMO_Jugend/MEMO_Jugendstudie_2023_DE.pdf, 29.
31 Asaf Tal and Kathryn Berman, “The Uneasy Closeness to Ourselves,” Interview with Dr. Götz Aly. 2009. https://www.yadvashem.org/articles/interviews/aly.html
32 Matthias Heyl, “Holocaust Education. Internationale Tendenzen im pädagogischen Umgang mit der Geschichte des Holocausts,” Schriftenreihe Probleme des Friedens, no.1 (1999): 5.
33 Conversation with Jona Schapira, referee of the Anne Frank Zentrum Berlin on 10.11.2020.
34 Oskar Schindler changed his role in historical events several times. Heyl writes about this: “He opted for different attitudes within the framework of the possibilities of the time and was first - like almost everyone - a spectator (1), joined the NSDAP and became a follower or Nazi (2), as an ‘Aryanizer’ he was a profiteer of the anti-Jewish measures and thus a helper of the Nazis or even a perpetrator (3), until he decided to help ‘his’ Jews, thus becoming a helper of the persecuted (4) and thus a potential persecuted himself” (Heyl, “Holocaust Education,” 7–8),translated by the authors.
35 Conversation with Peter Larndorfer 5.11.2020.
36 Mkayton, “The great danger is tears … .”
37 Workshop “Understanding and the inner world of adolescents” with psychologist Robin Menges in March 2021.
38 Gräzln in Vienna are parts of residential districts, but the term is also used synonymously with neighborhood.
39 Conversation with Wolfgang Schmutz on 21.10.2020.
40 Conversation with Peter Larndorfer 5.11.2020.
41 The MEMO Study 2022 also shows that only just under half of the respondents know that, for example, Sinti and Romani people were systematically persecuted by the Nazis. Conveying basic knowledge about the crimes of the National Socialists therefore remains an important educational task. See: Institut für interdisziplinäre Konflikt- und Gewaltforschung (IKG), Memo. Multidimensionaler Erinnerungsmonitor. Studie V. Bielefeld, 2022. https://www.stiftung-evz.de/assets/1_Was_wir_fördern/Bilden/Bilden_fuer_lebendiges_Erinnern/MEMO_Studie/MEMO_5_2022/evz_brosch_memo_2022_de_final.pdf,45.
42 The Nazis fantasized about an “Aryan race” of people supposedly linked by common blood. Since only members of that race were entitled to full rights in the National Socialist state, it became imperative for people to “prove” their “Aryan” descent. Those who could not do so were ostracized and persecuted. The “Arier certificate” consisted of marriage, birth or death certificates, which had to be officially authenticated. In addition to the certificates, proof could also be provided in an officially certified genealogical passport or in a genealogical table. The NSDAP required proof for its members going back to 1800. https://www.dhm.de/lemo/kapitel/ns-regime/ausgrenzung-und-verfolgung/ariernachweis.html. [26.06.2023].
43 The twins Kurt and Ilse Mezei, born in 1924, were able to survive as Jewish victims of persecution until 1945 together with their mother Margarete in Vienna, while their father was murdered in Auschwitz in 1944. Ilse Mezei was killed by a bomb in the cellar of the Jewish community in March 1945. The SS took her brother Kurt from the cellar of the house at Förstergasse 7 a few hours before the Red Army arrived on April 12, 1945 and shot him. Kurt Mezei's diary entries, which are now kept in the archives of the Jewish Museum Vienna, are a harrowing account of the Nazi era in Austria.
44 At the age of eight, Stojka was deported to Auschwitz as a Roma woman together with her family. Out of nearly 200 family members, only Stojka, four of her siblings, and her mother survived. In 1988, she started to draw public attention to the fate of Austrian Sinti and Roma under National Socialism through her work as a writer, singer, painter, and eyewitness. She played a pivotal role in raising awareness of this history and in gaining official recognition for Sinti and Roma as an ethnic minority in Austria.
45 Josef Kohout was an Austrian concentration camp survivor and as such a contemporary witness to the persecution of homosexuals under National Socialism. His experiences in Sachsenhausen and Flossenbürg concentration camps were written down by Hans Neumann under the pseudonym Heinz Heger, which is often attributed to Kohout, and published in 1972: the book “Die Männer mit dem Rosa Winkel” was the first comprehensive account of imprisonment in a concentration camp from the perspective of a gay man and as such was significant for the gay rights movement.
46 Elfriede Hartmann, a leading functionary of the Communist Youth Association, was arrested on February 24, 1942. She was accused of producing and distributing “anti-state inflammatory publications” (Die Rote Jugend, Der Soldatenrat) and preparing “acts of sabotage.” Elfriede Hartmann was sentenced to death by the People's Court on 22 September 1943 for “preparation for high treason and favoring the enemy” and executed on 2 November 1943 at the Vienna Regional Court.
47 This extraordinary document was written in Gestapo custody and smuggled to the outside world. In it, Elfriede Hartmann, charged with high treason, begs her family to intervene on behalf of her boyfriend, Rudolf Masl, who also stood accused. Her plea was ineffectual. Both Hartmann and Masl were sentenced to death and executed.
48 Possible responses might include pain, guilt, interest or indifference, sadness, anger, incomprehension, curiosity for more information etc.
49 It could also be useful to have the students write down their answers anonymously instead of discussing them. This way, they all have their chance to speak and dare to be more honest.
50 The program series deals with selected objects of the permanent exhibition under the premise of the reference to the present. In a semi-open participatory format, short films on the topics of democracy, the environment, education, work and coming to terms with the past were developed by a team of educators. These projects took place with direct involvement of community groups or only with indirect involvement through interviews with people of the urban society. These will become part of the permanent exhibition in recognizable installations.
51 We added the biography of Hans Grünsfeld, whose jewelry store was seized by the Nazis.
52 This filming work and the editing of the films was done by Christin Veith and her team.
53 The other places with linked biographies were: A residential building at Förstergasse 7, where Kurt Mezei was also murdered. The prison Rossauer Lände, where Elfriede Hartmann was also imprisoned. The Hellerwiese (today Barankapark), where the Stoijka family had their campsite. The apartment building at Favoritenstraße 60, where Hans Grünsfeld had his jewelry store. The Zimmermannplatz 1 (today Heinz-Heger-Park), where Josef Kohout lived.
54 Grünsfeld took over the gold, silverware, and watch store in Favoritenstrasse from his parents, Adolf and Serafine Grünsfeld, in 1930. In 1938, he was arrested by the Gestapo for “insulting the Führer” and deported to the Dachau concentration camp. Following his release, Grünsfeld’s store was liquidated and he was left bankrupt. In 1939, he managed to flee via Paris and Liverpool to La Paz in Bolivia, where he opened another store. But Grünsfeld did not cope well with life in emigration. He grew lonely and died by suicide in 1955.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Farina Asche
Farina Asche is a cultural anthropologist and PhD fellow in the “Exhibiting Knowledge/Knowledge in Exhibitions” doctoral research group at the University of Göttingen. Her focus is on migration, power relations, and knowledge production in museums. She also develops education concepts on different topics and teaches at universities. She was most recently a research fellow at the Wien Museum.
Susan Plawecki
Susan Plawecki is an art educator and former high school teacher, holding MA degrees in high school education and in museum curation and management. She has worked in various museums and conceived and supervised various cultural projects and education programs. Since 2019 she has been in charge of school programs in the Education Department of the Wien Museum.