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Wehrmachtausstellung
Closed
Author: Peter
Witte
November 4, 1999
Reply-To: H-NET
List for History of the Holocaust
German TV news just reported that the
"Wehrmachtsausstellung" will be closed down for at least
3 months. The opening of the exhibition in New York will
be postponed to a later date next year. The exhibition
will be reworked completely during this period and each
photo will be reexamined refering to its authenticity by
a new independent group of experts in order to regain
lost credibility.
Historians, who criticised pictures which in fact
showed political prisoners killed by the Soviet NKVD in
the place of Jews murdered by the Wehrmacht as was
maintained or showed Finnish resp. Hungarian soldiers in
acts of atrocity who were confused with Germans, were
invited to join this newly founded team. Jan Philipp
Reemtsma, director of the Hamburger Institut fuer
Sozialforschung, apologized in public and regretted that
the HIS had not reacted to scholarly criticism as it
would have been appropriate.
My opinion: This reaction was overdue. Among others a
close friend of mine, who is working as a historian in
Munich, told organizer Hannes Heer already in 1996
that wrong photos were on display. The HIS did not care,
but sued open critics and denounced them in public
because of their uttered criticism. So returning to an
open scholarly debate will be very much welcome now.
Peter
Witte
write to David Irving