'The Stuff of Jews'

What happened with the material culture of the Jews mostly living in Central and Eastern Europe, but also in the North of Afrca, during and after Shoah? What happened with their former properties, cemeteries and material memories in those places emptied on purpose of their Jewish population? After so many years, those and the children of those who survived then terrible times should consider themselves lucky to still be alive, but old memories and stories about those memories are still persistent and many questions are left unanswered, maybe for ever. These very interesting topics were discussed at the end of March at a workshop organised by the Center for Research on Antisemitism, Technical University in Berlin, sponsored by the Volkswagen Foundation: 'The Stuff of Jews: Political Economics and Jewish Material Culture, 1945-Present'.

Approaching the fact and stories from Poland, Romania, Czech Republic, Germany, Algeria and North of Africa in general, from an academic perspective, the interventions, held by academics from Europe, US and Israel outlined various aspects of the post-Shoah Jewish life. Interesting information were shared about the situation of Jewish properties in places where Jews were no more - synagogues and cemeteries, the difficult and sometimes controversial aspects of the restitution process, or the struggle to maintain Jewish memories in places where Jewish identity continues to be under threat, many years after most Jews left (such as the North of Africa). 

Each academic story brough some new fragments of history of the complicated histories of Jewish communities in these lands. Often following opportunitistic reasons and without a constant reliance of laws, the states after the end of the war made tremendous efforts, with some successes, to appropriate Jewish goods and properties, either at the community or individual level. Very often, they considered these properties as their own goods and unfortunately, many consider to keep them till today. There are many nuances, of course, and each situation should be considered individually. In some places, especially in Poland, organisations - supported by the state - were create in order to help the preservation of the Jewish heritage. Although Jews left for decades, their memories can still be included as part of the material memories. 

However, memories about these small things that may make your identity, as childhood toys or old furniture or even that chair that you loved as a kid...all these are gone for good and they may be lay somewhere in an Antique shop, after those who took over the Jewish properties did not need them any more. But what really maters is to stay alive and start writing beautiful stories about those lost toys that you left in the old country. This is also part of our destiny, probably.