Museum Archives | Page 4 of 12 | World Jewish Travel

Hungarian Jewish Museum and Archives

The Hungarian Jewish Museum is located in the heart of Budapest, in the Historical Jewish quarter, within the building complex of the Dohany Street Synagogue that was built in 1859. The idea of an independent Jewish Museum arose in 1909, when our Museum was founded. The first home of the collection made up of approximately 1,500 artefacts was an apartment downtown Budapest. The Jewish Museum found its final home in 1932 at the building designed by Laszlo Vago and Ferenc Farago, which was constructed next to the Dohany street synagogue in a matching architectural style.

In 1942 two employees of the Hungarian National Museum hid the valuable artefacts of the Jewish Museum in the cellar. Thanks to their bravery, the entire rich collection exists today. The permanent exhibition was rearranged in 2017, displaying the Jewish festivals and lifecycle. Our Milev-App The Milev-app can be downloaded from Google Play and the App Store.

Holocaust Memorial Center

The Holocaust Memorial Center is a national institution established by the Government in 1999. In 2002, it decided to construct the building of the Center in Páva Street, outside of the traditional Jewish quarter, further emphasizing its national character. The Holocaust Memorial Center is a museum and an exhibition hall at the same time, offering daily to its visitors an attractive permanent, and frequently changing periodic exhibitions. The equipment and the space in the modern building are shaped to allow displaying classical retrospectives, as well as innovative, interactive exhibitions.

The permanent presentation is placed in the basement of the Memorial Center, while the periodic exhibitions use the space of the refurbished synagogue, particularly its gallery, and the inner court of the Center. The accuracy and authenticity of the exhibitions is monitored by outstanding Hungarian and foreign historians, artists and experts. The Holocaust Memorial Center is one of the few institutions in the world, established by the state that focuses entirely on Holocaust research and education.

Jewish Museum of Berlin

The Jewish Museum Berlin is one of the outstanding institutions on the European museum landscape. Its new core exhibition that opened in 2020, its temporary exhibitions, collections, events program and the W. Michael Blumenthal Academy, as well as its digital and educational offerings make the museum is a vibrant place for dialog and reflection on Jewish past and present in Germany. ANOHA, the JMB Children’s World, tells the story of Noah’s Ark as a fun experience for children. Our exhibitions, events, and diverse program address a broad audience from Germany and around the world. Our collections grow continually, thanks also to many donors from Germany and abroad.

A special focus is educational work – the extensive education program, the research opportunities in the library and archive, and the program of events are aimed at children, young people, and adults. In addition to guided tours and workshops, there are lectures and conferences, concerts and readings, and an annual cultural summer program. Our digital programs are also very diverse, including the museum’s website, the JMB app, various online features on Jewish topics, online publications, online collections, and a media library.

Museum of the History of Polish Jews

The POLIN Museum is unique in that it’s creation involved the first public-private partnership of it’s kind in Poland. The main supporters of the museum’s creation are the City of Warsaw, the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland, and the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland. These three partners, along with much support of a widely established international network led to the birth of the museum. Thanks to the financial support of private donors and founders across Europe and the USA, the Museum of the History of Polish Jews officially opened its doors in 2005.

In 2016, POLIN Museum won the title of the European Museum of the Year Award (EMYA 2016). POLIN Museum rose up to the challenge of creating an engaging and persuasive core exhibition without a substantial collection of artefacts. The programme of temporary exhibitions, educational activities, conferences, academic and artistic residences make the Museum a vibrant platform for dialogue and spreading the knowledge on Jewish history and heritage – reads the EMYA Jury statement.

POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews is the first public-private partnership institution formed together by the government, the local government, and a non-governmental organization. In compliance with the signed tripartite agreement, the public partner covered, among others, the cost of the construction of the Museum building and its interior fittings. The Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland was responsible for, among others, financing and organization of the process of creating the core exhibition (for details please go to: Public-Private Partnership).

The Museum is a modern institution of culture – it is a historical museum which presents the 1000 years of Jewish life in the Polish lands. It is also a place of meeting and dialogue among those who wish to explore the past and present Jewish culture, those eager to draw conclusions for the future from Polish-Jewish history, and finally those who are ready to face the stereotypes and oppose xenophobia and nationalistic prejudices that threaten today’s societies. By promoting the ideas of openness, tolerance and truth, POLIN Museum contributes to the mutual understanding and respect among Poles and Jews.

Oskar Schindler’s Factory Museum

While the metal items factory was originally established by three Jewish entrepreneurs, the company changed ownership many times before filing for bankruptcy in 1939. Oskar Schindler took over the factory and used the premise during World War II to produce enamelware and later ammunition shells – the latter of which was in order to prove the factory’s value to the Nazi Party.

By doing this, Oskar Schindler was able to hire over 1,000 Jews and keep them employed throughout the Nazi occupation. When the Germans started losing the war, he went as far as bribing SS officials to prevent the execution of his Jewish employees by relocating them with his factory to a safer location in Brünnlitz. The SS official, Amon Goth’s secretary compiled the list of 1,200 Jews who were relocated thanks to Schindler’s efforts – thus giving the inspiration for Stephen Spielberg’s multi-award winning Schindler’s List.

Oskar Schindler died on October 9th, 1974 and was the only member of the Nazi Party be buried on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. In 1993, the Israeli government named Schindler and his wife, Emilie, were named Righteous Among the Nations. See remnants of Oskar Schindler’s heroic deeds in person during a memorable visit to the Oskar Schindler Factory.

Galicia Jewish Museum

Before World War II, the museum building was used as a mill. The establishment of the museum is really attributed to its founding director, photojournalist Chris Schwarz, whose partnership with British anthropologist Jonathan Webber, led not only to the Traces of Memory exhibit, but the opening of the museum. Chris drove from the UK to Poland and utilized the help of local friends to transform the old warehouse into a stunning museum. The renovated site retained many of the building’s original characteristics, which are complemented by the addition of metals, glass and dark wood that give the museum a contemporary feel, while playing tribute to its industrial past. Chris passed away prematurely in 2007 and since then the museum has worked hard to grow into the values that Chris instilled in the museum’s purpose: to share the complicated and fascinating culture of Jewish Polish Galicia.

The Galicia Jewish Museum is located in the Jewish heart of Kraków, in the district of Kazimierz. This innovative institution celebrates the culture and history of Jewish Polish Galicia and serves as a remembrance to the victims of the Holocaust. The stunning interiors and historic past have made this a popular venue for local performers, artists and musicians and hosts many culture and social events, thanks to the versatility of the space. Furthermore, as a registered Polish charity, the museum aims to educate Jews and Poles about their combined histories and challenge the stereotypes of the intricate past of Jews in Poland.

The Jewish Museum of London

The Jewish Museum London showcases the social and cultural heritage of the Jewish people. Exhibits explore British Jewish History, religious ceremonial artifacts, art galleries, and beyond. The Holocaust Gallery somberly recalls the tragic events of the Second World War. Much of the collection comes from British born Leon Greenman who lived with his family in the Netherlands at the time. Unable to attain asylum in the UK, his wife Else and son Barney died in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Leon’s archive of photographs keeps their memory alive at the Jewish Museum.

Professor Cecil Roth, Alfred Rubens, and Wilfred Samuel founded The Jewish Museum of London in 1932. The museum’s original location in Woburn House in Bloomsbury later moved in 1994 to an early Victorian-style building in London’s hip Camden Town. The predominantly Jewish East End of London housed the London Museum of Jewish Life starting in 1983. Finally, through fundraising efforts, the two museums merged and opened The Jewish Museum London in 2010 in a former piano factory in Camden Town.

The Imperial War Museums

The Imperial War Museums (IWM) consists of five museums throughout the UK, three of which are in London. Founded during WWI, the London Imperial War Museum preserves history by retelling stories of British wars through those who experienced them. Exhibits feature vast collections of artifacts and stories of those impacted by war including those of the Second World War and Holocaust. This museum also features impressive award-winning galleries that are able to move, inspire, and transform its viewers.

In the wake of WWI, Britain’s War Cabinet authorized the creation of a national war museum to document the experiences still occurring in Europe and Britain during the Great War. At the breakout of World War II in 1939, the Imperial War Museum continued its efforts even in the midst of the London bombings, during which curators had to evacuate vulnerable items from the city. That same year in 1939, Great Britain took in close to 50,000 Jews from Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia, many of them children who left their families behind. Today, the museum’s Kindertransport exhibit displays possessions like suitcases, prayer books, dolls, and magazines brought by the children who escaped Europe as well as other artifacts from that tragic period of history.

The Freud Museum

Situated in Sigmund Freud’s former family residence in Hampstead, London, the Freud Museum houses a collection of personal items, antiques, documents, and even the iconic chair owned by the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. Exhibits reveal Freud’s pathway toward developing psychoanalysis, considered the predecessor to modern psychology. By far, the most famous attraction within the museum is Freud’s psychoanalytic couch where all his patients once reclined. Visitors will also notice many fine Oriental rugs including styles such, Heriz and Tabriz covering the floors and tables, which is a unique design choice one has to see to truly feel Freud’s presence.

Considered the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud came from a family of Jewish wool merchants originally from Freiberg, Moravia (present-day Příbor, Czech Republic). Freud spent most of his life in Vienna where he studied, started a family, and explored the motivations behind human behavior. Although not a religious man himself, Freud couldn’t ignore the growing Anti-Semitism in Europe and the advancement of the Nazi regime. Freud and his family arrived in London as refugees fleeing Austria in 1938, narrowly escaping Nazi persecution. The museum served as Freud’s former residence where he lived with his family until the death of his daughter, Anna, in 1982.

Ben Uri Gallery and Museum

Ben Uri Gallery and Museum was founded over a hundred years ago in 1915 in the Jewish ghetto of Whitechapel in the East End of London by an immigrant Russian artist, Lazar Berson, who came to London in 1914 from Paris where he shared an apartment with fellow Lithuanian artist Jacques Lipchitz. The museum is a registered charity and the only specialist art institution in Europe addressing universal and ever-more central issues of identity and migration through the visual arts.

Our collection principally reflects the work, lives and contribution of British and European artists of Jewish descent, now extensively interpreted within the wider context of twentieth and twenty-first century art history, politics and society.

From our inception as an art society in Whitechapel in 1915, to our current status as a museum with an international reach, the collection has grown to more than 1300 works across 30 different mediums. Made up of both historical and contemporary works, the Ben Uri collection includes master works by seminal artists including Auerbach, Bomberg, Chagall, Epstein, Gertler, Grosz, Herman, Levy, Liebermann, Soutine and Wolmark. It spans 120 years and includes 380 artists from 35 countries, of which 67% are émigrés and 27% women. More about our history can be accessed from our 100+ year timeline, online gallery and archives.

Site Tag: Museum