We! Are! Here!

The 15 chairs of the Schreibtischtäter (armchair perpetrators) around the breakfast table have been empty for long, but we, the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of Jewish victims, are here, and we are many!

Last year, January 20, marked the 80th anniversary of the infamous conference at which fifteen men in a villa at Wannsee near Berlin decided the fate of 11 million European Jews. More than half of them perished in the holocaust.

Of 3 Million Ukrainian Jews, the SS-Einsatzkommandos (task forces)
 exterminated 1.5 Million

The infamous Wannsee Protocol gives a 16-page account of the one-and-a-quarter-hour deliberation.

Since then, many books and films have been made about the unimaginable Besprechung mit anschließendem Frühstück (meeting followed by breakfast).

The program of the exhibition opening

The exhibition entitled Wir! Sind! Hier! gives a different perspective, looking at the event of January 1942 from a different angle. The focus is not on the perpetrators but those persecuted because Wir sind viele!

The installation opened in the Berlin Reichstag (House of Representatives) on January 20, 2022, the 80th anniversary of the Wannsee Conference. It can now be seen at Freiburg's New Synagogue from March 7 to 27. 

Red Baron attended the exhibition's opening yesterday.

Lord Mayor Martin Horn, in discussion with
Dr. Felix Klein, Federal Commissioner for Jewish Life in Germany

Irina Katz, Chairwoman of the Freiburg Jewish Community,
welcomes the audience

Lord Mayor Martin Horn

Son, granddaughter, great-grandchild

Daughter, granddaughter, great-grandchild

In closing: Cantor Moshe Hayoun is singing Psalm 121:
I lift up my eyes to the hills-- where does my help come from?
My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth ...

Afterward, the installation will travel around the world. As the organizers of Hier! Sind! Wir! write on their website:

"In the process, further survivors will be portrayed, and the installation will thus be continuously supplemented. At the end of the journey, Wir! Sind! Hier! will return to Berlin and be on permanent display there from May 8, 2025, the 80th anniversary of the war's end."

Red Baron blogged about the anti-Judaism in Germany and the Endlösung before. This exhibition gives a face to the Holocaust survivors: We! Are! Here! showing their children and grandchildren as the hope.

Freiburg citizens visit this exceptional installation that reminds us of the darkest days in German history.

An article in the Badische Zeitung paid tribute to the inaugural event (click to enlarge).

Masked Red Baron was caught in the act of taking photos.

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