New international touring exhibition explores anti-Jewish pogroms
The National Holocaust Museum initiative, 'The Vicious Circle', runs in central London until Tuesday 28th January
Britain’s only dedicated Holocaust museum has launched a new international touring exhibition for Holocaust Memorial Day, with funding from the ministry of housing, communities and local government.
‘The Vicious Circle’ explores what the National Holocaust Museum in Nottinghamshire, calls “the delusion behind 2000 years of pogroms which not only murder and ethnically cleanse their Jewish target populations, but create lasting damage to the perpetrators.”
It opened in Soho, central London this week and runs until Tuesday 28th January, after which it will tour internationally — initially Tallinn, Berlin and the European Parliament in Brussels.
The exhibition tells five stories in a large circular installation, featuring original artefacts, texts and five large video screens.
These include five Jewish communities of Berlin, Baghdad, Kielce (Poland), Aden (Yemen) and Southern Israel; five artefacts illustrating the peaceful coexistence of these communities; five pogroms that led to the ethnic cleansing of these communities: in 1938, 1941, 1946, 1947 and 2023; five false prophets whose false promise of liberation incited these pogroms, and five original objects telling the story of harmonious co existence between Jewish communities and their Christian or Muslim co-citizens across Europe & the Middle East.
Professor Maiken Umbach, the National Holocaust Museum’s chief academic & innovation advisor, and Professor of Modern History at the University of Nottingham said: “On Holocaust Memorial Day, we need to do more than remember history. We also need to confront dangerous ideological delusions still at work today. The exhibition does not preach about how to save the world: it is an invitation to think again.”
pogrom ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day 27th of January 2025.
Marc Cave, National Holocaust Museum director said: “The UK’s theme for Holocaust Memorial Day 2025 is “For a Better Future”. Let’s look at the promise of a better future on offer from some. They promise a world without Jews, and certainly without a Jewish state, is a better world. They have expressed exhilaration at the latest pogrom: October 7. In the cultural arts space, there is a real need to educate and encourage dialogue about that.”
- To find out more about the exhibition, visit https://www.holocaust.org.uk/Event/the-vicious-circle-london-2025
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