The First Jewish Museum Opened During Nazi Era

ARTDAILY
By Dr. Kai Artinger

Jewish Museum, entrance hall, c. 1933. © New Synagogue Berlin - Centrum Judaicum.

GERMANY - Perhaps only a few people in Berlin and elsewhere know that there was a Jewish museum in the German capital from 1933 to 1938. Astonishingly enough, the first Jewish museum worldwide was opened one month before the seizure of power by the National Socialists. Finally the museum was closed down on the 10 November 1938 and its collection seized. The small but fine exhibition presents above all a selection of the paintings which survived the Third Reich and the Second World War. The paintings are scattered all over the world. But the organizers have traced them to Poland, the United States and Israel. It shows that Jews tried to withstand the fascist terror and barbarism even in the field of arts. [link]