by Meredith Combs
Everyone knows some version of the quote that says those who do not learn history are destined to repeat it. The Leo Baeck Institute’s 1938 Projekt: Posts from the Past was created with that idea in mind: a project that tells the stories of Jews in Europe before World War II and reaches a young audience so they will learn, remember, and share those stories in the future. The Leo Baeck Institute (LBI) is a research library and archive with locations in both New York City and Berlin. Their extensive collections are focused on the history of German-speaking Jews, particularly those living in Central Europe before the Holocaust.
The 1938 Projekt: Posts from the Past was presented by LBI as a digital exhibition that chronicled the personal stories of Jews in Europe in 1938. The project used archival documents dated from each day in 1938 to create 365 entries that create a window into the Jewish experience as tensions rose before the start of World War II. This multifaceted project focused on reaching a young audience who use social media and it was launched in 2018, eighty years after the events of 1938. There is a website with chronological posts as well as pages about partners, contributors, and related education materials. The education materials include eleven ready-to-use lesson plans. Additionally, there are Facebook and Instagram pages that feature the year of posts. There are two videos related to the project: a mini-documentary and a video called “Voices from the 1938Projekt.” Lastly, a selection of the documents created a physical exhibition at the Center for Jewish History in New York for the majority of 2018. An accompanying traveling exhibition went to five cities in Germany.
One example of a post is the one from February 11th titled, “Sell the Jewelry: Brothers in exile worry about their parents.” The caption translates a highlighted section which says, “By the way, do you happen to have mom’s jewelry with you? Because mom had sked me if you told me, because I advised them to sell it, so that they would have means to live.” This correspondence between two brothers, one in France and the other in New York, highlights their concern for their parents’ welfare. They were concerned with their parents’ emigration plans, but also how they would support themselves in the meantime. At that time Nazis had restricted which professions Jews could participate in which changed the financial situation for many families. Students often learn about the atrocities of World War II, but this letter between brothers reveals that the hard times started with smaller aggressions.
The aim of this year long project was to reach a young audience, such as high school students, by using a social media style of communication with the accompanying Facebook and Instagram pages. The Instagram only has 184 followers, but the Facebook page is liked by 4,022 people. This means that the social media presence of this project was able to reach over 4,100 people. A young audience is a version of a “non-traditional” user of the archives – meaning someone who is not a historian, academic, genealogist, or administrative user. While the primary purpose was for the stories of Jews in 1938 to resonate with today’s youth, there is also a secondary objective of showing these non-traditional users what types of information and documents can be found in an archives. This introduction to archival material through social media style posts is successful outreach because the young users could become long-term users of libraries and archives. Another advantage of this mode is that people from all around the globe can access these materials online. The accompanying lesson plans are designed for teachers, but once again it reinforces the goal of sharing these stories with a young audience eighty years after the original events.
Along with successfully reaching a new audience, this exhibition succeeds as a work of advocacy because of the content LBI and their partnering institutions shared. The materials explain the changes Jews faced throughout 1938 and how the Jewish community felt in those moments. Capturing their feelings and their humanity through these posts is an invitation for the viewer to emphasize. This project not only advocates for people from the past but also for those lessons to be shared with generations to come. This expansive project was a year-long effort that successfully raised compassion, awareness, and understanding about Jewish life in Europe eighty years prior.