Material Culture in relation to Shoah Flashcards
To understand the Material Culture concepts explored in the Shoah topic
What are the different kinds measurements of value for an object in a museum?
Authenticity – (proof that the object is really what it is claimed to be)
Their rarity or uniqueness
heir ‘beauty in themselves’ - (we shall need to qualify this)
Their ‘explanatory value’ (what they tell us about the past)
Their ‘contextual value’ (how they fit into a museum display)
(p.206)
What 3 main purposes do curators have to satisfy in museums?
The responsibility to conserve and preserve objects in their care.
The political aims of those who fund the museum (often, in the end, government).
The need to attract the public to attend in large numbers.
These aims often conflict.
(p.206)
What are the aims of government which influence museum policy?
They are the reinforcement of social cohesion, the celebration of national history and myths, and the desire to increase tourism.
(p.206)
What personal values may a curator have that influences their wishes for what to show in a museum?
They have professional values, based on their training as archaeologists or art historians, for
Privilege criteria based on:
Personal aesthetic judgement
The perceived rarity value of objects.
They want to educate people, and help them share the distinction that they are culturally cultivated.
(p.206)
Give an some example where a curators point of view clash with what they end up selecting for display?
But some of the most prized objects in a collection (from a curator’s point of view) may fail to
attract a wide public, or may throw embarrassing light on a country’s ‘national record’.
Under pressure from the visiting public, curators sometimes set aside their interest in ‘authenticity’ and rarity in order to ‘tell a story’, using objects and displays which have been created anew, like a film set.
And in almost every museum display there is a mixture of ‘authentic’ objects and storytelling display techniques.
(p.207)
What are some considerations around showing images of the dead from genocide?
The west does not like the sight of dead bodies. Even showing body parts has been rejected, for example the Holocaust Museum in Washington wanted to display hair taken from Jewish prisoners to be used for industrial purposes by the Germans, but was rejected. (p. 211)
How is absence of people represented in museums? Give an example of an exhibition from the module materials.
Often photographs are used to represent people who are gone. There is a problem is a large number of people are concerned. The tower of faces is a 3 story tower in Holocaust Museum in Washington (p.218)
Naming people - walls of names of people murdered.
Everyday belongings of individuals, with their photo and a backstory.
Map of train lines that took people to camps (gone noe).
Journals.
Stones
Iron maks in Berlin that people walk on
Tombs
Who is the american Professor of Religion and Culture, and what is his comments regarding the design of the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC - regarding representing victims of the holocaust?
Profession Eduard Linenthal - They were worried the millions of individual deaths in the holocaust would be lost in the story of mass death and fascination with technique of destruction. They wanted to personalize the Holocaust. They wanted visitors to abandon the role of bystander, and thought displaying 1000s of photographs would do that. in the Tower of Faces based on the ‘Yaffa Eliach Shtetl Collection’ (p. 218-220)
What is the importance of stones?
Jewish tradition to leave a small stone (or lamp) on graves or list of names of dead. Tradition derives from Book of Genesis in the Bible, where the first monument was Sa’adutha or witness-pile of stone. Motif used in many sights, Treblinka, Mauthausen, National memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe, etc (p. 230)
