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The Witness as Object
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Museums and Collections
Editors
Mary Bouquet, University College Utrecht, and
Howard Morphy, The Australian National University, Canberra
As houses of memory and sources of information about the world, museums func-
tion as a dynamic interface between past, present and future. Museum collections
are increasingly being recognized as material archives of human creativity and as
invaluable resources for interdisciplinary research. Museums provide powerful
forums for the expression of ideas and are central to the production of public
culture: they may inspire the imagination, generate heated emotions and express
conflicting values in their material form and histories. This series explores the
potential of museum collections to transform our knowledge of the world, and for
exhibitions to influence the way in which we view and inhabit that world. It offers
essential reading for those involved in all aspects of the museum sphere: curators,
researchers, collectors, students and the visiting public.
Volume 1. The Future of Indigenous Museums: Perspectives from the Southwest
Pacific. Edited by Nick Stanley
Volume 2. The Long Way Home: The Meaning and Values of Repatriation. Edited
by Paul Turnbull and Michael Pickering
Volume 3. The Lives of Chinese Objects: Buddhism, Imperialism and Display.
Louise Tythacott
Volume 4. Colonial Collecting and Display: Encounters with Material Culture
from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Claire Wintle
Volume 5. Borders of Belonging: Experiencing History, War and Nation at a
Danish Heritage Site. Mads Daugbjerg
Volume 6. Exhibiting Europe in Museums: Transnational Networks, Collections,
Narratives and Representations. Wolfram Kaiser, Stefan Krankenhagen and
Kerstin Poehls
Volume 7. The Enemy on Display: The Second World War in Eastern European
Museums. Zuzanna Bogumił, Joanna Wawrzyniak, Tim Buchen, Christian
Ganzer and Maria Senina
Volume 8. Museum Websites and Social Media: Issues of Participation,
Sustainability, Trust and Diversity. Ana Luisa Sánchez Laws
Volume 9. Visitors to the House of Memory: Identity and Political Education at the
Jewish Museum Berlin. Victoria Bishop-Kendzia
Volume 10. The Witness as Object: Video Testimony in Memorial Museums. Steffi
de Jong
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The Witness as Object
Video Testimony in Memorial Museums
Steffi de Jong
berghahn
N E W Y O R K • O X F O R D
www.berghahnbooks.com
This open access library edition is supported by Knowledge Unlatched. Not for resale.
First published in 2018 by
Berghahn Books
www.berghahnbooks.com
© 2018 Steffi de Jong
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages
for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book
may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information
storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented,
without written permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Jong, Steffi de, 1984- author.
Title: Th e witness as object : video testimonies in memorial museums / Steffi de Jong.
Description: New York : Berghahn Books, [2018] | Series: Museums and collections ;
volume 10 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifi ers: LCCN 2017050579 | ISBN 9781785336430 (hardback : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Video tapes in historiography. | Oral history. | Historical museums--
Exhibitions. | Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Personal
narratives. | Collective memory. | Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--
Historiography. | Holocaust survivors--Interviews--Historiography.
Classifi cation: LCC D16.18 .J66 2018 | DDC 940.53/18075--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017050579
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-78533-643-0 hardback
ISBN 978-1-78533-643-0 open access ebook
An electronic version of this book is freely available thanks to the support of libraries working
with Knowledge Unlatched. KU is a collaborative initiative designed to make high quality books
Open Access for the public good. More information about the initiative and links to the Open
Access version can be found at knowledgeunlatched.org
Th is work is published subject to a Creative Commons Attribution
Noncommercial No Derivatives 4.0 International license. Th e terms of the
license can be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
For uses beyond those covered in the license contact Berghahn Books.
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Contents
List of Illustrations vi
Acknowledgements viii
Notes on the Text x
Introduction 1
Chapter 1. The Witness to History: Conceptual Clarifications 31
Chapter 2. Genealogy: The Mediation of the Witness to History
as a Carrier of Memory 49
Chapter 3. Collecting: Turning Communicative Memory into
Cultural Memory 71
Chapter 4. Exhibiting: The Witness to History as a Museum
Object 110
Chapter 5. Communicating: Witnesses to History as Didactic
Tools 181
Conclusion 240
Bibliography 251
Index 267
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Illustrations
0.1. Video testimonies at the Museo Diffuso 3
0.2. Th e execution chair from the Martinetto Sacrarium at the
Museo Diffuso 4
4.1. Th e glass case with the shoes of people deported to
Majdanek and other concentration camps in the ‘Final
Solution’ exhibition chapter in the Holocaust Exhibition at
the Imperial War Museum 123
4.2. Yvonne Koch’s gloves 130
4.3. F ilm still from the video testimony with Yvonne Koch from
2003 130
4.4. I nside the railway carriage exhibit in the Holocaust
Exhibition at the Imperial War Museum 135
4.5. V iew of the permanent exhibition at the Bergen-Belsen
Memorial with the video testimonies and the archaeological
finds on the left-hand side 139
4.6. V iew of the section with the archaeological finds and the
video testimonies at the Bergen-Belsen Memorial 142
4.7. V iew of the building of the former Walther-Werke at the
Neuengamme Memorial 143
4.8. V iew of the ‘Mobilisierung für die Kriegswirtschaft’
exhibition at the Neuengamme Memorial 147
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Illustrations vii
4.9. V iew of the permanent exhibition of the Bergen-Belsen
Memorial 171
4.10. V iew of the ‘Häftlingsgruppen’ exhibition chapter in the
‘Zeitspuren’ permanent exhibition at the Neuengamme
Memorial 172
4.11. View of the exhibition at the Museo Diffuso 177
5.11. Th e mirror-image in one of the steles with video
testimonies at the Museo Diffuso 181
6.1. G roup picture of the twenty-seven Europeans in ‘It’s Our
History!’ 240
6.2. Th e video testimony with Gyula Csics in the ‘It’s Our
History!’ exhibition 243
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Acknowledgements
Numerous people have influenced, guided and supported me
throughout the process of researching and writing this book. My study was
part of the research project ‘Exhibiting Europe’, funded by the Research
Council of Norway, which also awarded a generous travel grant. This
grant allowed me not only to do my fieldwork and to travel to numerous
conferences and workshops, but also to stay at the Institute of European
Ethnology at the Humboldt University in Berlin for one year. I would like
to thank Stefan Krankenhangen, Wolfram Kaiser, Kerstin Poehls, Leonore
Scholze-Irrlitz and Torgeir Bangstad of the ‘Exhibiting Europe’ group for
their support and the many formal and informal discussions that we have
had. With his astute comments, Stefan always managed to push me to
the limits and helped me to refine my arguments. With her ethnological
gaze, Leonore opened my eyes to new ideas and theories. She has also
been an extremely committed contact-person during my time in Berlin.
Wolfram, Kerstin and Torgeir read either the whole or parts of this book
and gave insightful comments. Kerstin helped me to find my way around
the numerous workshops and reading groups in Berlin, and has been a
dedicated friend and colleague throughout. Torgeir has been with me
through the good times and the bad of the writing process. I thank him
for his support and the many heated discussions that we have had. All six
members of ‘Exhibiting Europe’ met up for common workshops in vari-
ous European cities. I am grateful for having been given the opportunity
to take part in these workshops and to see new sites and meet inspiring
people. A very big thank you goes to Anette Homlong Storeide, for her
useful advice and for her numerous comforting words. I would also like
to thank Stefanie Schüler-Springorum and Sigrid Jakobeit for advice and
their interest in my project, Daniel Weston for his comments from an
outsider’s point of view and Corinna Bittner and Michelle Lynn Kahn for
many insightful last-minute comments and the endless discussions that we
have had. A really big thank you goes to Sharon Macdonald and Habbo
Knoch for their advice, criticisms, keen observations and encouragement.
Habbo Knoch has been an enormous support and I thank him for endless
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