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 The Exhibition "The German Army and Genocide," originally scheduled to run at Cooper Union's Houghton Gallery has been POSTPONED for an indefinite period by the Hamburg Institute for Social Research, creators of the exhibition. The symposium and filmprogram listed in this website will proceed as scheduled. |
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 In 1945 at the end of World War II, shortly after the German Army's unconditional surrender, the Nuremberg trials clearly established that officers and members of the Army (the Wehrmacht) participated directly in the racial and genocidal terror that had characterized the Nazi project for a new world order. In spite of this, the defeated Germans began to construct a myth that became a central tenet of postwar West German society. That myth promoted the idea that the regular army had fought a "normal" war and was innocent of the genocide and mass murders carried out by the SS and the Gestapo. Popular magazines, dime novels, and films presented the soldiers as "regular guys" – honorable and decent men doing their duty. Officers were portrayed as having been victimized by the orders of a mad dictator. Heroic images of men flying Stuka dive bombers and manning tank turrets and machine guns to hold back the invading barbarians from the East, helped to embed this image. These stories continued to distance the German Army from Hitler, the Nazi regime, and from the atrocities they perpetrated against Jews, other civilians, and prisoners of war.  |
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 The Hamburg Institute for Social Research, established in 1984 as an independent private foundation, created this extraordinary exhibition. It powerfully challenges the myth of the German Army's innocence, which has served as a core narrative of postwar German history. Graphic photographic evidence documents the Army's participation in atrocities in Eastern Europe. Harrowing photographs taken by German soldiers depict massacres, hangings, and torture. Official documents direct military units to exterminate Jewish communities. Private letters from soldiers to their families include eyewitness - and often boastful - accounts of war crimes. Military directives prove close collaboration between the SS and the regular army throughout the war.
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» Background » The Exhibition » Public Response » In America » Programming » Contributors |
 The exhibition, viewed by almost a million people in Germany and Austria since it opened in March 1995, continues to generate both controversy and deep reflection. Almost 20 million men from a cross-section of German society served in the German Army during World War II. While the Hamburg Institute notes that the exhibition does not make facile generalizations about the behavior of all soldiers, it maintains that it does document the crimes committed with devastating clarity. The exhibition leaves no doubt that the plunder, the massacre of civilians, the killing of prisoners of war, and genocide were not just the work of the generals or a few fanatical Nazi officers. The exhibition's conclusion: millions of soldiers – men with familiar faces and names; men who enjoyed love and respect – participated. Clearly, these men were subjected to massive ideological indoctrination, and acted both on orders from their superiors and, in many cases, on their own initiative. One result of
the exhibition was an unanticipated outpouring of responses from former
soldiers, their children, and their grandchildren. They sent letters.
They telephoned. They sent in the notebooks and photo albums kept since
the war ended. They offered memoirs the soldiers had written for their
families. Some of these artifacts are now part of the exhibition. The
exhibition has evolved into a significant historical event in its own
right, stimulating an ongoing dialogue on questions of history, memory,
and documentation. |
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» Background » The Exhibition » Public Response » In America » Programming » Contributors |
 Reconfigured for its American tour, the exhibition focuses on three case studies: the war against partisans in Serbia, the advance of the Sixth Army toward Stalingrad, and the three-year occupation of Belorussia. The military demonized its victims to justify extermination campaigns. Its pitiless war against civilians was packaged as anti-partisan self-defense. Attempts by the German Army to erase all traces of its crimes are documented, along with evidence of systematic propaganda efforts to justify or cover up atrocities. Some of the new materials donated by families now accompany the original exhibit.
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» Background » The Exhibition » Public Response » In America » Programming » Contributors |
 A symposium organized by scholars from New York University, The New School University, Columbia University, Princeton University, Rutgers University and The Cooper Union will complement the exhibit at The Cooper Union's Houghton Gallery. Researchers from Europe, Israel and the United States will join the discussions. The symposium will be held at the New School University December 3-6, shortly after the official opening of the exhibition at the Cooper Union on December 2, 1999. Keynote speaker and historian Saul Friedlander will open conference on Thursday evening December 4. The first day will focus on the Eastern Front, with panels on Perpetrators and Victims, Home Front and Battle Front, and the Construction of Post-war Memory in Germany. The second day broadens the discussion to more general and comparative questions about war, atrocities, and memory. Presentations on Japan, the United States, France and the Netherlands will explore remembering and forgetting in relation to World War II, Vietnam, Algeria, and Indonesia. A concluding roundtable will address the Politics and Ethics of Modern Warfare. On Wednesday, December 8, a workshop on the role of exhibits and museums in "Exhibiting War Crimes" will be held at New York University. A film series sponsored by the German Government's cultural institute in New York the Goethe Institut and New York University will be held at the Cantor Film Center at New York University and the Goethe Institut. The official publication for the exhibit is to be published by The New Press in the early fall of 1999. Holocaust and World War II expert Omer Bartov has written a special introduction for this edition. New Press director André Schiffrin is actively involved in all planning for the exhibition and related symposia.
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 The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art was founded in 1859 by industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper. For 140 years all admitted students have received full scholarships to study art, architecture and engineering. The exhibition at the Cooper Union was organized by Robert Rindler, Dean of the School of Art, the Cooper Union. On-Site Curator: Liselot van der Heijden in cooperation with Atina Grossmann, Professor of History, the Cooper Union. Support by John Harrington, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Cooper Union. Website design by Petter Ringbom. The academic advisory committee: Omer Bartov, Professor of History, Rutgers University; Judith Friedlander, Dean of the Graduate Faculty, The New School; Atina Grossmann, Professor of History, the Cooper Union; Mary Nolan, Professor of History, the New York University; Anson Rabinbach, Professor of History, Princeton University; André Schiffrin, the New Press, publisher of the book.  The Hamburg Institute for Social Research was established in 1984 as an independent private foundation governed by German Law. The executive chairman is Prof. Dr. Jan Phillip Reemtsma. Conception and Research of the exhibition: Dr. Bernd Boll, Hannes Heer, Dr. Walter Manoschek, Christian Reuter and Dr. Hans Safrian. The Director of the exhibition: Hannes Heer. |
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