Countless objects owned by Jews were illegally appropriated in Germany between 1933 and 1945: houses, businesses, paintings, furniture, tablecloths, bric-a-brac. Some of these items were returned to their previous owners after 1945, not always voluntarily, but many were not. These objects are connected with emotions. But what were the emotional associations for the original Jewish owners on the one hand, and for the Aryanisers, buyers and their heirs on the other?
Emotions are linked to cultural values and moral principles. Feelings of shame and enjoyment, for instance, are both the result of learning processes that take place within a specific social, cultural and political context. Which values were associated with the appropriated objects by dispossessed Jews and by their new owners, and which kind of idea of morality and value did the heirs of the latter attach to them, knowing that these objects had been in their family’s possession only since the Nazis had come to power? What do these values and emotions tell us about the way the National Socialist past was dealt with both emotionally and materially?
This conference investigated these questions emphasising in particular recent findings about how, in their private sphere, Germans tackled the questions of morality and emotions in relation to the appropriated and inherited possessions of the Nazi era. The conference approached these questions from two different angles: from the perspective of the objects, reconstructing their history, theft and eventual return or non-return; and by studying the emotions linked with such objects from the Nazi era. Scholars from the UK, USA, Germany and the Netherlands took part in this conference.
Workshop programme click here and see below:
Objects and Emotions – Loss and Appropriation of Jewish Property
International Workshop organised by the Leo Baeck Institute
26-27 July 2010
Monday, 26 July
2.00 – 2.20pm Opening:
Prof Andreas Gestrich (GHI
2.30 – 3.30pm Author's
Chair: Dr Daniel Wildmann (LBI
Gila Lustiger (
3.45 – 5.15pm Panel 1:
Chair: Dr Kerstin Brückweh (GHI
Dr Hanno Loewy (
Homelessness? The Museum and the Never Ending Story of Lost and Found.
Dr Cathy Gelbin (
5.30 – 7.00pm Documentary:
Chair: Dr Judith Keilbach (
Die Akte Joel – Die Geschichte zweier Familien (
Tuesday, 27 July
9.30 – 11.00am Panel 2:
Chair: Prof Jane Caplan (St. Anthony's College,
Inka Bertz (
Dr Jürgen Lillteicher (Willy-Brandt-Haus Lübeck): Aryanization, Morality and the Reputation of a Good Merchant. Business Ethics before and after 1945 11.30am –
1.00pm Panel 3
Chair: Prof Andreas Gestrich (GHI
PD Dr Sabine Wienker-Piepho (Friedrich-Schiller-Universität
Dr Anthony Kauders (
2.30 – 4.00pm Panel 4:
Chair: Prof Ute Frevert (FU Berlin/ Max-Planck-Institut für
Prof Norman Palmer CBE QC (King’s College
Dr. Hilde Schramm (
4.30 – 6.00pm Panel 5:
Chair: Prof Raphael Gross (LBI London/Fritz Bauer Institut/
Prof Atina Grossmann (The Cooper Union, New York): Family Files: The Hotel Astoria and other (non) Restitution Stories
Prof Leora Auslander (
6.10 – 6.30pm Closing Remarks: Prof Peter Pulzer (LBI
German Historical Institute
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