Leon Weintraub, a Shoah surviver and a donor to the Jewish Museum Berlin’s Archive, campaigns against collective amnesia as an eyewitness to history, giving talks at schools and memorials. In 2022, he published his life’s memories in German Die Versöhnung mit dem Bösen: Geschichte eines Weiterlebens (Reconciliation with Evil: Story of a Survival) with Wallstein Verlag.
Leon Weintraub was born in the Polish city of Łódź in 1926. Starting in 1940, his family was forced by the Nazis to live in the Litzmannstadt Ghetto and to perform forced labor. When the ghetto was liquidated in 1944, the detainees were deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, where they were murdered.
recording available
Where
W. M. Blumenthal Academy,
Klaus Mangold Auditorium
Fromet-und-Moses-Mendelssohn-Platz 1, 10969 Berlin
(Opposite the Museum)
Weintraub, however, pretended to be an Arbeitshäftling, a working prisoner, and thus escaped being killed. During the turmoil of the war’s final months, he survived several brutal campaigns to transfer prisoners before he finally managed to escape from one of the transports. Much of his family did not survive the Shoah.
For his memoirs, Leon Weintraub told the journalist Magda Jaros about his childhood and the postwar period, his studies of medicine in Göttingen, his career in Poland, and his emigration to Sweden in response to the antisemitic March Riots of 1968. In conversation with editor Jan Philipp Bothe, he presents the book at the Jewish Museum Berlin.
In cooperation with Wallstein Verlag
Leon Weintraub and the cover of the book Die Versöhnung mit dem Bösen; photo: Malgorzata Musielak, Wallstein Verlag
Leon Weintraub and the cover of the book Die Versöhnung mit dem Bösen; photo: Malgorzata Musielak, Wallstein Verlag
Video recording from 27 Okt 2022; Jewish Museum Berlin, in German; Thumbnail: Leon Weintraub
Video Recordings: Watch Past Museum Events (84)
Watch Past Museum Events
We film select events, such as conferences, panel discussions, book presentations, and our lecture series.
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Approaching the “Orient” through pictures – the Life and Work of Jewish photographer Hermann Burchardt.
Part of the lecture series The Imagined Orient (Part 2, in German)
Lecture/Discussion
Wed 8 Nov 2023, 7 pm -
“Orient” – A Magic Word? On the German-Jewish History of a Term
Lecture by Kathrin Wittler, Part 1 of the lecture series “The Imagined Orient” (in German)
Lecture/Discussion
Mon 9 Oct 2023, 7 pm -
Theodor Herzl. Statesman Without a State
Lecture and Discussion with Derek Penslar on the Occasion of the 75th Anniversary of the Establishment of Israel
Reading/Discussion
Wed 31 May 2023, 7 pm (video recording available, in German) -
Lviv
Jewish Perspectives on Ukraine, Present and Past with Philippe Sands, Sofia Dyak and Marina Chernivsky
Ukraine in Context
Mon 8 May 2023, 7 pm (video recording available) -
Vanishing Points of Memory. On the Holocaust and Colonialism in the Present Day
A conversation with Natan Sznaider and René Aguigah
Discussion
Tue 31 Jan 2023, 7 pm (video recording available, in German) -
Reconciliation with Evil: Story of a Survival
Book Presentation with Leon Weintraub
Reading/Discussion
Thu 27 Okt 2022, 7 pm (video recording available, in German) -
Albert Einstein, Hans Kaufmann and Zionism
An unknown letter
Symposium
Mon 12 Sep 2022 (video recording available) -
Read the Signs
An evening to mark the 70th anniversary of the Night of Murdered Poets, in Yiddish, English and German
Reading/Discussion
14 Aug 2022 -
Symposium on the 70th Anniversary of the Night of Murdered Poets
Part of the Summer Program for Yiddish Language and Literature
Symposium
Sun 14 Aug 2022, 2 pm (video recording available in Yiddish, English and German) -
Mendelssohn Discourses: Media Revolution – Publicity, Celebrity, A Flood of Images
Caspar Battegay and Shmuel Feiner talk with curator Inka Bertz and Frederek Musall.
Discussion
Tue 5 Jul 2022, 7 pm (video recording available) -
Emancipation and Law
On the history of jurisprudence and Jewish equal rights – book launch and panel discussion
Reading/Discussion
Tue 26 Apr 2022, 7 pm (video recording available, in German) -
“Ich kämpfe gegen alles, was mich niederdrücken will“ (I Fight Against Everything that Tries to Oppress Me)
The diary of Jewish communist resistance fighter Karl Neuhof and correspondence with his family
Mon 11 Apr 2022, 7 pm (video recording available, in German) -
Rafi, Judenbub. Die Rückkehr der Seligmanns nach Deutschland
Book presentation and discussion with Rafael Seligmann, publicist, political scientist and historian, and Hetty Berg, director of the Jewish Museum Berlin
Thu, 24 Mar 2022, 7 pm -
Staging Jewishness
Artist talk with the photographer Frédéric Brenner
Artist Talk
2 Mar 2022 -
“The Lonely Living Stars”
Concert for the Memorial Day of the Victims of National Socialism
Thu 27 Jan 2022, 7 pm (video recording available) -
Shtetl Berlin All-Star Concert
Hanukkah 2021: Candle lighting with Yiddish songs, instrumental music and dance
Concert
2 Dec 2021 -
Iber der grenets / Crossing the Border: Yiddish Literature and Culture Today
Presentation of an extensive collection of Yiddish short stories, in German and Yiddish
Reading/Discussion
20 Nov 2021 -
Jews Don’t Count?
Book launch and talk with the author David Baddiel, Sascha Chaimowicz, Marina Chernivsky and Daniel Donskoy, moderated by Jo Frank
Reading/Discussion
26 Oct 2021 -
Is anyone still waiting for the Messiah? – Jewish and Christian Views
With Prof. Christoph Markschies (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) and Prof. Daniel Krochmalnik (University of Potsdam), in German
24 Aug 2021 -
Yael Bartana – Redemption Now
Digital opening event with Yael Bartana, Hetty Berg, Shelley Harten and Gregor Lersch
Language: mainly in English, with brief sections in GermanExhibition Opening
3 Jun 2021 -
The 2nd DAGESH Art Award goes to Talya Feldman
& Opening of the Installation The Violence We Have Witnessed Carries a Weight on Our Hearts
Language: English and GermanExhibition Opening
20 May 2021 -
In Celebration of Daniel Libeskind’s 75th birthday
with Daniel Libeskind, JMB Director Hetty Berg, and film director Axel Fuhrmann, moderated by Sonja Marx of Saarland Broadcasting
Discussion
4 May 2021 -
Shtetl Berlin All-Star Concert
Hanukkah 2020: Candle lighting with Yiddish songs, instrumental music and dance
Concert
12 Dec 2020 -
Shared History
Virtual Conference on 1,700 years of Jewish life in German-speaking lands, in German
Conference
7–9 Dec 2020 -
Conversation with the Artist Wendy Ewald
With Wendy Ewald and Gregor H. Lersch as part of the exhibition This Place
Artist Talk
5 Mar 2020 -
The Last Veit Simons from Berlin
One of Berlin’s oldest Jewish families in a transnational story of class, gender, and sexuality
With: Anna Hájková and Maria von der Heydt
Language: German, no subtitlesReading/Discussion
11 Dec 2019 -
Conversation with the Artist Thomas Struth
With Thomas Struth (photographer) and Theresia Ziehe (curator of photography), related to the exhibition This Place, in German
Artist Talk
5 Dec 2019 -
About a Tea Bowl
Discussion with brief presentations about interwoven experiences of post-Soviet Jewish migration, in German
Lecture/Discussion
27 Nov 2019 -
The Family Album
Peter Schaul recounts the life of his mother, Dora Schaul, whose estate is part of the interactive installation The Family Album
Language: German, no subtitlesLecture/Discussion
9 Nov 2020 -
Ruth Wodak: Swing to the right?!
Ruth Wodak traces how a new “normality to the right” is establishing itself in many European countries, in German
Lecture/Discussion
17 October 2019 -
I'm Writing You From Berlin. An Evening with the Lasker-Wallfisch Family
Anita Lasker Wallfisch and Raphael Wallfisch join Maya Lasker-Wallfisch in an evening of music and conversation
Reading/Discussion
7 Feb 2023 -
Zvi Aviram: Brushes with Death
Zvi Aviram was born in January 1927 in Berlin as Heinz Abrahamsohn. From age 14, he had to perform forced labor in the arms industry. During the so-called factory operation on 27 February 1943, his parents were arrested and deported and he himself went into illegality, in German
16 Sep 2019 -
Mendelssohn Discourses: Enlightenment – Fake News, Sentimentality, Reason
Philosophers Carolin Emcke and Hannah Peaceman in conversation with Frederek Musall and the curators Inka Bertz and Thomas Lackmann.
Discussion
4 May 2022 -
Karl M. von der Heyden: From Berlin to New York
In his book Karl M. von der Heyden describes his experiences as a child and youth in war-torn Germany and his journey to the USA, where he rose to the boardrooms of Pepsi and Dreamworks, in German
Reading/Discussion
29 Aug 2019 -
A Rebbe for the World
On the 20th Yahrzeit of Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Introductions by Cilly Kugelmann and Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal and lecture by Joseph Telushkin, in German and English
Reading/Discussion
1 Jul 2014 -
“To Know One Religion Is to Know None”
W. Michael Blumenthal Fellow Walid Abdelgawad talks about reflections on Islam and Judaism in the writings of German-speaking Jewish orientalists between 1833 and 1955, in German
Lecture/Discussion
28 Aug 2019 -
Sally Perel: Hitlerjunge Salomon
Sally Perel was born in Peine in April 1925. After the German invasion of the Soviet Union he pretended to be a Volksdeutscher and called himself Josef Perjell, in German
Eyewitness Talks
12 Jun 2019 -
Museums, Religion, and the Work of Reconciliation and Remembrance
with the curators Jisgang Nika Collision (Haida Gwaii Museum, Haida Nation & Canada) and Léontine Meijer-van Mensch (Saxonian State Ethnographic Collections)
Lecture/Discussion
9 May 2019 -
Access Barriers. Critical Perspectives on Racism in Schools and Curatorial Practices
Keynote by Bonita Bennett (District Six Museum, Cape Town) at the conference Access Barriers on museums as places of social change.
Lecture/Discussion
20 Mar 2019 -
The Laskers from Breslau (Wrocław) – A Family Reunion in Music and Words
Cellist and contemporary witness Anita Lasker Wallfisch shares the stage with three generations of her family for the first time
27 Jan 2019 -
Peter Neuhof: A Youth in the Shadow of the Persecution
Peter Neuhof speaks about his memories and experiences in an interview with Aubrey Pomerance, head of the archive. His parents were active members of the German Communist Party (KPD) and were arrested in 1943. Peter was able to remain in the parental home, in German
Video Recording
3 Dec 2018 -
Happy Birthday, Academy Programs!
Welcoming Remarks and Introducing the Academy Programs | Discussion with Performance: Archive of Life. Memory in a Society Shaped by Migration | Panel Discussion: Jewish Fathers – Jewish Children? | Panel Discussion: A Pre-fascist Era? | Reception: 5 Years – 5 Friends – 5 Gifts
Video Recording
2 Dec 2018 -
Polish Perspectives on '68: March Protests
In Poland, the student protests were co-opted by an antisemitic rampage that resulted in 13,000 Jews being forced to leave the country, in German and Polish
Discussion
22 Nov 2018 -
Living with Islamophobia
The international conference Living with Islamophobia considered how cultural and religious affiliations are constructed and invited experts to enter into discussion.
Conference
11 + 12 Oct 2018 -
Michael Sfard: The Jerusalem Dispute. The Fight for Human Rights in Israeli Courts
Lecture by Michael Sfard, one of Israel’s leading human rights lawyers
Lecture/Discussion
6 Sep 2018 -
Imported Antisemitism?
Is Antisemitism increasing with the number of refugees from Arab countries? We discuss with political, academic, and practical experts which manifestations of antisemitism among Arab migrants and Muslims in Germany exist, in German
Discussion
30 Aug 2018 -
Seyla Benhabib: The Global Refugee Crisis and the Challenge to Liberal Democracies
Seyla Benhabib (Yale University) discusses the challenges migration poses to liberal democracies
Lecture/Discussion
26 Jun 2018 -
Hanni Levy: Surviving in Berlin
Born in 1924, survived the Nazi era in hiding in Berlin with the help of friends, in German
Eyewitness Talks
25 Jun 2018 -
Stolen Judaica. Provenance Research in Israel and Germany
In this symposium, research that explores the origins of Jewish ceremonial objects exclusively in Israel and Germany, took center stage for the first time, in German and English
Conference
18/19 Jun 2018 -
Ongoing Struggles. Anti-Discrimination Work during the Rise of the Far Right
Opening Session of the academic conference, including Imani Perry's keynote “What Lies Underneath: Difficult Histories and the Resurgence of The Far Right”
7 Jun 2018 -
Anita Lasker Wallfisch: Auschwitz Never Left Me
Born in Breslau in 1925, Anita Lasker Wallfisch studied cello in Berlin from 1938. In 1942, Anita’s parents were deported to Izbica and murdered, and in 1943 Anita and her sister Renate were deported to Ausschwitz, in German
Eyewitness Talks
28 May 2018 -
Lives in Common: Arabs and Jews in Jerusalem
Author Menachem Klein in Conversation with Cilly Kugelmann
Reading/Discussion
8 May 2018 -
Margot Friedländer: Try to Make Your Life
Margot Friedländer was born in 1921 in Berlin and has had close ties with the museum for many years. She reads from her memoir, which takes its title from her mother’s last message to her: Try to Make Your Life, in German
9 Apr 2018 -
What is the Relationship Between Antisemitism and Islamophobia?
Lectures by David Feldman and Stefanie Schüler-Springorum, in German and English
Lecture/Discussion
20 Mar 2018 -
The Book of Numbers
Reading and talk with the author Joshua Cohen and literary scholar Jan Wilm, in English and German
12 Feb 2018 -
Walter Frankenstein: Not with Us
Born in 1924 in West Prussia, Walter Frankenstein lived in Berlin from 1936. When deportation threatened, he went into hiding with his wife and their five-week-old son. The family managed to survive with the help of friends, in German
31 Jan 2018 -
“And the day will come ...”
Eyewitness Horst Selbiger in conversation with Léontine Meijer-van Mensch, in German
11 Jan 2018 -
Kurt Roberg: A Visa Or Your Life
Born 1924 in Celle, emigration at the end of 1938 via the Netherlands, return to Berlin in March 1941 and re-emigration in May 1941 via Lisbon to the USA, in German
Eyewitness Talks
4 Dec 2017 -
New Judaism – Alliances in Postmigrant Society
Discussion on concepts of being Jewish within the third generation of Jews in Germany, in German and English
16 Nov 2017 -
Jews in Muslim Majority Countries
International conference for scholars from different continents and academic disciplines, who discuss questions of culture, identity and memory of Jewish life in Arab and Muslim majority countries.
24 to 27 Oct 2017 -
Henry Wuga: A Nuremberger from Glasgow
Henry Wuga was born to a Jewish mother and a Catholic father in Nuremberg in 1924. In 1938, his parents were able to send him to Scotland with a children’s transport and later in 1947, he could bring his mother, who had survived in hiding, to his home in Glasgow, in German
Eyewitness Talks
23 Oct 2017 -
Future Memories
Discussion on the Importance of Minority Perspectives for European Societies’ Commemorative Cultures, in German and English
26 Sep 2017 -
Luther, Rosenzweig, and the Script
Book presentation and discussion with Micha Brumlik, Walter Homolka, Christoph Kasten, Irmela von der Lühe, and Gesine Palmer , in German
18 Sep 2017 -
Between the Lines
An evening with Israeli and German poets, in Hebrew and German
9 Sep 2017 -
Religion. Fashion. Empowerment.
Discussion with Reina Lewis and Meriem Lebdiri, in English and German
29 Jun 2017 -
José Casanova: Secularisation or the Return of Religion?
Discussion on the Relationship Between Religion and Secularity in European Societies, in German
Lecture/Discussion
16 Mar 2017 -
Jews in North Africa During the Second World War
Theme day with lectures by Michel Abitbol, Eric Salerno, Patrick Bernhard, Haim Saadoun, and panel discussion
Language: German, English, and French
26 Jan 2017 -
“Nothing can Hurt Those who Already Died Once”- Discussion with Contemporary Witness Marko Feingold
With: Marko Feingold, Peter Schäfer, Uwe Neumärker
Language: German, no subtitlesEyewitness Talks
10 Nov 2016 -
Sites of Memory: Lost and Entangled Narratives
With: Dr. Rosa Fava, Juliane Jurewicz, Prof. Dr. Iman Attia, Olga Gerstenberger, Ozan Keskinkiliç, Anita Awosusi, Ilona Lagrene, Prof. Dr. Michael Rothberg, and Serpil Polat
Language: German and English, no subtitlesConference
16 Sep 2016 -
Time of Crisis
With: Dan Diner, Adam Michnik, Dietmar Herz, Étienne François, and Hans Kundnani
Language: German, no subtitlesDiscussion
7 Sep 2016 -
Antisemitism in the Arabic World – Facts and Myths
With: Michael Kiefer and Omar Kamil
Language: German, no subtitles
26 Apr 2016 -
“Mich hat Auschwitz nie verlassen” (Auschwitz has never left me)
With: Renate Lasker-Harpprecht and Anita Lasker Wallfisch
Language: German, no subtitlesEyewitness Talks
1 Mar 2016 -
Post-migrant Society?!
International conference from 12 to 14 November 2015
Recording of the opening event
Language: German and English, no subtitles
12–14 Nov 2015 -
On Life – Working with People Traumatized by the Shoah
With: Giselle Cycowicz, Martin Auerbach and David Becker and Volker Beck
Language: German, no subtitlesPanel Discussion
1 Oct 2015 -
Kill Me a Son!
Recording of the opening event
With: Prof. Dr. Peter Schäfer and Prof. Dr. Angelika Neuwirth
Language: German, no subtitles
3–4 Sep 2015 -
A Shared View of Europe – Jewish and Muslim Experiences as Reflected in Public Controversies
Panel discussion
With: Prof. Nilüfer Göle, Shai Lavi and Gökçe Yurdakul
Language: English, no subtitles
19 Jan 2015 -
Contemporary Jewish life in a global modernity
International conference
Recording of the presentation “Future of European Jewry”
With: Dr. Karen Körber and Dr. Diana Pinto
Language: English, no subtitles
11–12 Dec 2014 -
Snip it?!
Presentation of a study followed by a discussion, in German
With: Professor Kerem Öktem, Mounir Azzaoui, Dr. des. Alexander Hasgall, and Dr. des. Hannah C. Tzuberi.
4 Dec 2014 -
Concepts of Citizenship and Participation in European Comparison
Recording of the keynote by Prof. Dr. Rainer Bauböck and the followed panel discussion
With: Prof. Dr. Rainer Bauböck, Dr. Manuela Bojadžijev, Josip Juratovic and Dr. Monika Lüke
Language: German, no subtitlesLecture/Discussion
7–8 Apr 2014 -
Art and Culture in the Terezín Ghetto
In four lectures, the symposium explores the history of Theresienstadt, the “ghetto of exceptions,” from four different angles.
With: Wolfgang Benz, Anna Hájková and Hanno Loewy
Language: German, no subtitles
2 Mar 2014 -
The Connected Audience
Conference from 27 February 2014 to 28 February 2014
With: John H. Falk
Language: English, no subtitles -
Is Higher Education a Safeguard Against Racism and Antisemitism?
Presentation of a study followed by panel discussion
With: Wassilis Kassis, Charlotte Schallié, Iman Attia, Stefanie Schüler-Springorum and Andreas Zick
Language: German, no subtitlesLecture/Discussion
20 Feb 2014 -
“What do we mean when we say ‘antisemitism’?”
Keynote lecture, opening the conference Antisemitism in Europe Today: the Phenomena, the Conflicts
With: Brian Klug, in EnglishLecture/Discussion
8 Nov 2013 -
Circumcision: Identity Politics and / or Health Issue?
With: Sander L. Gilman, in Englisch
Lecture/Discussion
8 May 2013
