World · Europe · 8 hrs ago
Bonn exhibition addresses pressure on Holocaust remembrance
Disrespect at the Buchenwald memorial has become more frequent, including visitors posing in a crematorium oven and cutting down memorial trees.
Jens-Christian Wagner, who leads the foundation responsible for the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora memorials, says Holocaust remembrance is under pressure as right-wing populism and historical revisionism grow.
A new exhibition in Bonn confronts Nazi crimes and efforts to forget them through artworks and historical objects.
Wagner says lectures and compulsory visits alone may not engage students, so Buchenwald offers full-day programs where young people examine historical sources.
The exhibition encourages visitors to connect past and present, including how groups are marginalized in debates about migration.
Eva Umlauf, an 83-year-old Holocaust survivor and patron of the exhibition, was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau as a toddler and narrowly escaped the gas chambers.
With survivors becoming fewer, Germany faces the task of keeping their history alive and helping young people understand its relevance.
A Bonn exhibition examines pressure on Holocaust remembrance and the growing distortion of Nazi-era history.
The exhibition, “Never Again! Against Forgetting the Crimes of the Nazi Regime,” is at the Bundeskunsthalle.
Historian Jens-Christian Wagner says attacks on remembrance and disrespect at memorial sites have become more frequent.
The exhibition uses art and historical artifacts to encourage visitors to confront Nazi crimes and connect the past with current events.
Eva Umlauf, an 83-year-old Holocaust survivor and exhibition patron, was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau as a toddler.
- Who
- The exhibition’s curatorial team includes Jens-Christian Wagner. Holocaust survivor Eva Umlauf is its patron.
- What
- A Bonn exhibition addresses pressure on Holocaust remembrance and the distortion of Nazi history.
- When
- The article was published on November 8, 2026. The exhibition’s opening date is not stated.
- Where
- The Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn, Germany.
- Why
- Its curators are concerned about attacks on remembrance, historical revisionism and the loss of survivors who can tell their stories.
Critics of Holocaust remembrance
Jens-Christian Wagner and the exhibition’s supporters
Remembrance
Critics of Holocaust remembrance
Critics have dismissed remembrance as a “cult of guilt” or “national masochism.
Jens-Christian Wagner and the exhibition’s supporters
Wagner says Holocaust remembrance is under pressure and that confronting Nazi crimes is important.
Historical interpretation
Critics of Holocaust remembrance
Historical revisionism is becoming more common, according to the article.
Jens-Christian Wagner and the exhibition’s supporters
Wagner warns against the distortion of history and wants visitors to make sense of it through historical sources.
The Nazis deported two-year-old Eva Umlauf, her pregnant mother and her father from the Novaky labor camp to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Wagner says incidents of disrespect at the Buchenwald memorial have become more frequent.
The article reports on the Bonn exhibition addressing Holocaust remembrance.
- Exhibition
- Never Again! Against Forgetting the Crimes of the Nazi Regime
- Venue
- Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn
- Curatorial team member
- Jens-Christian Wagner
- Exhibition patron
- Eva Umlauf, 83
- Deportation
- Umlauf was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in November 1944
What people are saying
Incidents like this have become more frequent in recent years.
I hope that perhaps even some people who don't already believe it's important to confront Nazi crimes will find their way to the exhibition
For the longest time, people have been discussing migration almost exclusively in terms of threats to public safety and crime.