Institutions of difference and disappearance

Abstract

Between 1941 and 1943, German authorities in the Łódź Ghetto oversaw plans for a Jewish Museum with an exhibition on Jewish religious and cultural life. Curated by ghetto inhabitants, the project was never realized. While historians have speculated on how the exhibition might have fit into National Socialist ideology and propaganda, key questions remain unresolved. This article traces the exhibition’s development and revisits earlier interpretations in light of new and rarely discussed sources. It concludes that a broader perspective, which considers the problematic role of museums in producing cultural hierarchies, offers an additional angle for interpreting the planned exhibition.