Personal stories about the theft and restitution of Jewish cultural property in the National Holocaust Museum and the Jewish Museum

With the exhibition ‘Looted’. Personal stories about the theft and restitution of Jewish cultural property’ (May 31-October 27, 2024), the Jewish Cultural Quarter and the Rijksmuseum show the emotional impact of the theft of personal property during the Nazi regime. For survivors and relatives of murdered Jews, the search for lost possessions followed the Holocaust. And a bitter struggle to regain this – just like their diminished dignity.

Underlying emotion
In ‘Looted’ the visitor sees art and children’s drawings, photos, Jewish ritual objects and books. Ego documents and interviews reveal the underlying emotion: the pain that continues to affect the survivors and their relatives to this day.

Eight stories
The focus is on eight personal stories about the struggle that survivors and relatives of murdered Jews had to wage after the war to regain these possessions, and thus their dignity.
The eight stories are brought to life using (art) objects, photos, personal documents, film and sound fragments and interviews with descendants. The National Holocaust Museum focuses on five stories about the restitution of art (Fritz Mannheimer, Dési Goudstikker, the Heppner-Krämer family, Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita and Margarete Stern-Lippmann) and in the Jewish Museum three personal stories about the restitution of Hebrew books and Jewish ritual objects (Louis Hirschel, Louis Lamm and Leo Isaac Lessmann).

The exhibition ‘Looted‘ can be seen at two locations: the newly opened National Holocaust Museum and the Jewish Museum.
Er is ook een boek, een podcast en een symposium bij de tentoonstelling.

National Holocaust Museum, Plantage Middenlaan 27
Jewish Museum, Nieuwe Amstelstraat 1