2008 Woodie Awards
"Jews of the Luthertown Wittenberg in the Third Reich:" Teaching our generation how to appreciate the past
Allyson Margolis
Issue date: 1/31/08 Section: Life!
From Feb. 2, up until March second, the Galleria of the Baker Center for the Arts will be featuring an exhibit called, "Jews of the Luthertown Wittenberg."
This is a historical exhibition which consists of multiple panels decorated with pictures and words, capturing the lives of Wittenberg's concentrated Jewish population during the Nazi's occupancy in Wittenberg.
Being that Muhlenberg is a Lutheran college, it is connected with Martin Luther and Wittenberg, his hometown. The College is also rooted along the same grounds as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which made a declaration to the Jewish Community in 1994, repudiating the violent incentive Luther carried out in his writings and messages to the church.
The "Jews of Luthertown Wittenberg" symbolizes Muhlenberg's ensured dedication to learning from events of the past, as well as shaping a more harmonizing community filled with diversity, reflection, morals, and humanitarianism.
By educating ourselves of the Wittenberg Christian involvement in Nazism, students and faculty can aid in the prevention of historical repetition.
This exhibit will also enlighten its viewers of all that the Wittenberg Jews had to endure, recognizing their strength and giving light to their memories.
It is a wonderful way of keeping that period in history vibrant, so that such horrors, or horrors thought up from the events, never have the chance to occur. The College is striving to promote change, as well as preservation through this exhibit by detailing the heritage throughout the pieces.
As the pamphlet about the exhibit states, "part of handling the heritage of the Reformation involves dealing with Luther's writings that were used during the Third Reich to discredit and persecute Jews...responsibility and sensitivity are required for any dialogue involving Jews and Christians and this exhibition is [being used to] make a contribution to this end."
Peter Pettit, Director of the Institute of Jewish-Christian Understanding, hopes that while exploring the exhibit, students will "Ask themselves what their lives might have been like in that era, had they lived in Wittenberg."
Pettit notes an even tougher question to ponder--what kind of response would one have to Nazism, had one been experiencing it?
Would it be easier just to blame the scapegoat for Germany's social and economic troubles? On Feb. 2, students and faculty will have the chance to ask themselves these questions, along with any others that come to mind.
The exhibition's producer will be speaking in Seegers Room 113 on Fri, Feb. 1 at noon and again at the opening reception, held on Sun. Feb. 3 at 1:30 p.m. in the Center for the Arts Recital Hall.
Students who attend will come away with a new appreciation for the hardships that the Jews of Wittenberg endured, as well as a new perspective on how to treat people.
Because, as the Nazi's have shown, a small amount of hatred can go a really long way and affect all of the subsequent generations.
This is a historical exhibition which consists of multiple panels decorated with pictures and words, capturing the lives of Wittenberg's concentrated Jewish population during the Nazi's occupancy in Wittenberg.
Being that Muhlenberg is a Lutheran college, it is connected with Martin Luther and Wittenberg, his hometown. The College is also rooted along the same grounds as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which made a declaration to the Jewish Community in 1994, repudiating the violent incentive Luther carried out in his writings and messages to the church.
The "Jews of Luthertown Wittenberg" symbolizes Muhlenberg's ensured dedication to learning from events of the past, as well as shaping a more harmonizing community filled with diversity, reflection, morals, and humanitarianism.
By educating ourselves of the Wittenberg Christian involvement in Nazism, students and faculty can aid in the prevention of historical repetition.
This exhibit will also enlighten its viewers of all that the Wittenberg Jews had to endure, recognizing their strength and giving light to their memories.
It is a wonderful way of keeping that period in history vibrant, so that such horrors, or horrors thought up from the events, never have the chance to occur. The College is striving to promote change, as well as preservation through this exhibit by detailing the heritage throughout the pieces.
As the pamphlet about the exhibit states, "part of handling the heritage of the Reformation involves dealing with Luther's writings that were used during the Third Reich to discredit and persecute Jews...responsibility and sensitivity are required for any dialogue involving Jews and Christians and this exhibition is [being used to] make a contribution to this end."
Peter Pettit, Director of the Institute of Jewish-Christian Understanding, hopes that while exploring the exhibit, students will "Ask themselves what their lives might have been like in that era, had they lived in Wittenberg."
Pettit notes an even tougher question to ponder--what kind of response would one have to Nazism, had one been experiencing it?
Would it be easier just to blame the scapegoat for Germany's social and economic troubles? On Feb. 2, students and faculty will have the chance to ask themselves these questions, along with any others that come to mind.
The exhibition's producer will be speaking in Seegers Room 113 on Fri, Feb. 1 at noon and again at the opening reception, held on Sun. Feb. 3 at 1:30 p.m. in the Center for the Arts Recital Hall.
Students who attend will come away with a new appreciation for the hardships that the Jews of Wittenberg endured, as well as a new perspective on how to treat people.
Because, as the Nazi's have shown, a small amount of hatred can go a really long way and affect all of the subsequent generations.