On the recommendation of many of my peers who had previously visited the Jüdisches Museum Berlin, or Jewish Museum Berlin, I traveled 4.5 hours to Berlin to experience the museum myself. Based on the testimony of my peers who have already visited the museum, my expectations were set high, and I was both excited and somber to experience the tribulus history of Ashkenazi Jews in Germany, of which I am partially a descendant. 

Opened in 2001, the museum is 3,500 square meters and has an annual attendance of approximately 700,000 people from its inception.⁶ The museum is one of the largest attractions in Berlin, and is notably the largest museum of Jewish History in Europe. ^{5, 8} The museum itself is a private foundation called Stiftung Jüdisches Museum Berlin which is regulated by public law, and funded through a mix of an annual grant from the Federal Government Commissioner for Cultural Affairs and the Media, ticket sales, and merchandise sales. ⁸

During my research for this article, I found out that the museum had been in hot water as recently as 2017 due to an exhibit called “Welcome to Jerusalem” which sparked controversy as the Israeli government and Jewish organizations in Europe condemned the exhibit for what they called an anti-Israeli and Pro-Palestinian exhibit which centered on “mainly the Muslim-Palestinian perspective”. ^{5, 8} The culmination of this controversy was the eventual resignation of Peter Schäfer, who was the director of the JMB since 2014, even though the temporary exhibit was extended a year due to its popularity. ^{5, 6} While I will not comment on this controversy, I felt it would be disingenuous of me to report my experience in the museum without noting the museum’s history. 

To get to the museum, I took the U6 to Kochstraße, and walked 10 minutes through the remarkably beautiful neighborhood of Kreuzberg, which was remarkably clean and decorated with trees throughout. As I approached the museum, I was greeted by a man who directed me to the ticket office, where I received a ticket for free as it was Museum Sunday. I then went to the cloakroom where they stored some of my bags from earlier in the day, and proceeded to the entrance of the exhibit. Prior to my entrance, I had been wearing my Star of David necklace under my shirt, hiding it on the account of rising anti-semitism in Germany and the many, many warnings I received from Germans, Jews, and others to remove any physical markers of my Jewishness before I entered the museum. As I approached the exhibit, I removed the star from under my shirt, and entered into the permanent exhibition, where my troubles started. 

While beautiful and remarkably striking, the brunt of my negative experience with the museum occurred in this contemporary section of the museum under the first floor. As soon as I arrived, I was confronted with two things which to me were incredibly disrespectful. As this part of the exhibition is an account of the Holocaust and those who died, I was expecting a somber tone, and respectful behavior from the other people at the museum, which I sadly was not confronted by. Instead, I was greeted with children running, playing, and laughing, trailed distantly by their guardians, who were also chuckling themselves. This overall shifted the tone of the exhibition for me, as a place of tragedy seemed to be overshadowed by children running free and people laughing. As I continued on this floor, I noted several times that there were girls who appeared to be in their young adult years posing for photos. These girls were smiling, laughing, and posing in front of important exhibits within the exhibition, which felt disrespectful on the account of the contents of the exhibition. 

This pretty generally put a rather sour taste in my mouth, as it felt that the deep importance and tragedy of the area was overshadowed and largely ignored by guests, who were not confronted by or at all directed by the members of staff who patrolled the floor. As I continued to the next level, I experienced another thing that left a remarkably bad taste in my mouth, which was the incomplete history of German Jews. For context, my grandmother was born in modern day Gdánsk, which at the time of her birth was a Free City named Danzig. The city itself was very German, both in language and ethnicity, and includes an incredible amount of Jewish history. Notably, Danzig voted the Nazi’s into power in 1933 and again in 1935, with its German roots being the justification for the Nazi’s invasion into Poland. I was surprised to find that there was no mention of Danzig in the museum that I was able to find, and it felt strange to know that the German Jewish history that occured in what is now modern-day Poland felt largely ignored. While my family is Polish Ashkenazim, this oversight felt intentional, as Jewish history in Germany had a large focus, and the history of Jews in previously held German territories was largely left out. 

After spending approximately 2 hours in the museum (where I did not see another Jew wearing any religious or cultural markings), I stopped by the museum shop before I left. I usually buy either a tote bag or matches in museums as a memento of every museum I visit, and I did not plan on this being any different. While the assortment of Jewish jewelry was quite beautiful, my eye was caught by the section of cards on a table in the center of the room. On it, there was a quote by Coco Chanel, which left me a bit in shock. Coco Chanel is a known Nazi sympathizer, who both socialized with and dated Nazi party members, and even took part in operation Modelhut.³ This card felt like a gross oversight on the part of the museum, as the museum itself must have paid to license this quote and ultimately supported Coco Chanel’s estate through this action. When I brought it up to the shop clerk, hoping to bring this oversight to the attention of the museum, she told me in not so many words that she does not control what the museum sells. Only after I restated my distaste that such an item would be sold at a Jewish museum did she say she would talk to her manager about it. Overall, the interaction felt unnecessarily aggressive and dismissive, not something I was expecting to experience. 

Ultimately, for the reasons listed above, I can’t in good conscience recommend the museum to people looking to learn about Jewish history, which is tragic as it truly has a beautiful assortment of Jewish documents, and a remarkably progressive exhibit on being a Jew in the modern day which I quite enjoyed. I hope that the museum can take actions to prevent some of the issues I listed above, such as encouraging staff to help guests keep their children under control, and possibly discouraging those posing for photos with smiles in front of horrifically tragic exhibits. They might also work to better incorporate the stories of Jews from German occupied territories and previously German areas, as well as reviewing the items sold in their gift shop. 

Story by Ryan Witz.

Citations

1. About Us | Jewish Museum Berlin. (2024). Jewish Museum Berlin. https://www.jmberlin.de/en/about-us
2. Friends of the Museum | Jewish Museum Berlin. (2024). Jewish Museum Berlin. https://www.jmberlin.de/en/friends-of-the-jmb
3. James, C. (2024, February 20). The truth about Coco Chanel and the Nazis. Bbc.com; BBC. https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20240220-the-truth-about-coco-chanel-and-the-nazis
4. Planning Your Visit | Jewish Museum Berlin. (2024). Jewish Museum Berlin. https://www.jmberlin.de/en/planning-your-visit
5. The Economist. (2019, July 27). How the Jewish Museum Berlin fell out with Jews. The Economist; The Economist. https://www.economist.com/europe/2019/07/27/how-the-jewish-museum-berlin-fell-out-with-jews
6. The History of the Jewish Museum Berlin | Jewish Museum Berlin. (2024). Jewish Museum Berlin. https://www.jmberlin.de/en/history-of-the-museum
7. The Museum’s Organizational Structure and Administration | Jewish Museum Berlin. (2024). Jewish Museum Berlin. https://www.jmberlin.de/en/about-the-organisation
8. What and Whom Are Jewish Museums For? (Published 2019). (2024). The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/09/arts/design/jewish-museums-germany-berlin-europe.html
9. Wikipedia Contributors. (2024, January 17). Jewish Museum Berlin. Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Museum_Berlin