Until 14 January 2023, the Jewish Museum Berlin will be showing the first-ever large-scale exhibition on Jewish experiences in the GDR. With a focus on cultural history and using documentary research, the show journeys into a little examined part of German-Jewish history, bringing together visual art, film and literature, as well as multifaceted biographies and exceptional exhibits.

It uses an actor-centric perspective to explore Jewish experiences in East Germany through and beyond the post-reunification era to the present. Contemporary witnesses and their personal stories are at the heart of the show. What motivated Jews to return to the GDR? What did it mean to be Jewish in the GDR? What kind of relationship did Jews have to state control?

In the aftermath of the Shoah, many Jews were united by a shared desire: To build an anti-fascist state in the GDR – “a new country,” as some of them put it in interviews. They fled Germany from the Nazis, returning after 1945 to the Soviet zone of occupation. They survived concentration camps or time in hiding. In the exhibition they speak of their experiences in exile, their survival and their remigration.

An expansive program accompanies the show and includes everything from a concert by the band Stern-Combo Meißen to an expert conference entitled “...and turning towards the future? – On Jewish history and stories in the GDR.” The exhibition itself also serves as an event location: on Tuesday afternoons, readings, discussions, film screenings and talks with contemporary witnesses will be held in a personal setting.

Featuring artistic work by Silvia Dzubas, Lea Grundig, Barbara Honigmann, Leon Kahane, Marion Kahnemann, Yael Reuveny and Vera Singer