The exhibition documents how injustice and arbitrariness were part of the everyday proceedings of the justice system of the Wehrmacht, and how thousands of men and women, soldiers and civilians, became victims of this unjust judicial system and consequently lost their lives as deserters, so-called »subverters of national defence« (Wehrkraftzersetzer), or so-called »Volksschädlinge« (those who »exercise a destructive influence on the folk community«). After 1945, the majority of Germans met the surviving victims of the Wehrmacht justice system with hostility and ill-will. Until today, many see those who were convicted as traitors or cowards. Only in September 2009 did the Deutsche Bundestag annul the last of the outrageously unjust decisions of the Wehrmacht’s judicial system during World War II. Among the tens of thousands of victims of this judicial system are also members of the resistance from nearly all over Europe, who were imprisoned, tried, and executed in great numbers in their Nazi-occupied home countries or in Germany.
The exhibition in Gießen will be accompanied by presentations and discussion meetings which will also cover current dimensions of the topic. In addition, the Museum of Upper Hesse will offer guided tours for school classes and other groups.
The exhibition was planned by the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, with the support of the Foundation Memorial Sites in Saxony, the Memorial of the German Resistance, the Memorial Sites of Saxony-Anhalt Foundation – Memorial Site ROTER OCHSE Halle (Saale), the Federal Agency for Civic Education, and the National Association of Victims of Nazi Military Justice. The official opening will take place at the Museum of Upper Hesse Gießen on November 4 at 6 p.m.
More information on the exhibition: www.stiftung-denkmal.de/projekte/ausstellungen/wasdamalsrechtwar
Exhibition venue: Oberhessisches Museum, Altes Schloss, Netanyasaal, Brandplatz 2, 35390 Gießen
Exhibition dates: November 5, 2011 till January 4, 2012
Opening hours: Tue – Sun, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Closed: December 24 and 25, 2011
Entrance free!
Booking of free guided tours: Mon – Fri.. 8 a.m. – 1 p.m., Tel.: +49 (0) 641 960 973 12, museum@giessen.de
Opening:
November 4, 2011, 6 p.m.
Museum of Upper Hesse, Altes Schloss, Netanyasaal
Greeting:
Dietlind Grabe-Bolz, Lord Mayor of the university town of Gießen
Introduction:
Dr Ulrich Baumann, Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, curator of the exhibition
Ludwig Baumann, chairman of the National Association of Victims of Nazi Military Justice.
Contact:
Oberhessisches Museum
Tel: +49(0)641 960 973 0
Fax: +49(0)641 960 973 17
Email: museum [at] giessen.de
