There are places that not only collect, but also speak - quietly, insistently, between the lines of history. The Jewish Museum Munich is one of them. Those who enter here do not enter a silent archive, but a space for listening and reflection. Between historical objects and photographs, the past resonates, not as a mere fact, but as a living memory that has an impact on the present and the future.
The museum sees itself as a resonating space: a place where history is not closed, but remains negotiable; where questions of identity, belonging and responsibility are taken seriously. Between seriousness and irony, between pain and knowledge, contradictions become visible and negotiable. In this way, visitors themselves become part of a dialog - about what was and what we make of it.
Exhibition view "The Third Generation", Rafael Goldchain © Eva Jünger / Jewish Museum Munich
The Third Generation. The Holocaust in family memory
80 years after the Holocaust, the exhibition "The Third Generation. The Holocaust in Family Memory" invites visitors to explore the transgenerational legacy of a catastrophe that continues to have an impact. Created in collaboration with the Jewish Museum Vienna, the exhibition shows how the children and grandchildren of survivors deal with their families' traumas and how memory, silence, myths and gaps shape their own lives.
While the second generation grew up with the physical and psychological scars of their parents, the third generation looks back from a temporal distance at a history that is steeped in both horror and unspoken secrets. Artistic works make visible how coping strategies, appropriation or conscious forgetting serve as a means of confrontation.
The Munich station of the exhibition adds local perspectives to the Vienna show. Works by Munich artists illustrate how the Holocaust continues to shape personal and social life to this day. At the same time, they address provenance, restitution and the question of how to deal with the incomplete biographies of objects and the emotional legacy of the victims.
The exhibition shows impressively that remembering is never neutral. It is a process that requires responsibility, sensitivity and critical reflection - and which raises questions that we cannot ignore, even across generations. Until March 1, 2026, the exhibition will open its doors to anyone who wants to engage in this debate.
April 9, 2025 to March 1, 2026
www.juedisches-museum-muenchen.de
Exhibition view "The Third Generation", Fabian Erik Patzak © Eva Jünger / Jewish Museum Munich
