Hjemkomst 1945-47

This is what we stand for

As a museum for a national minority, we strive for quality, accessibility, collaboration and continuous innovation in everything we do. We shall be relevant, timely, inclusive and respectful in all aspects of our work. These values guide us in fulfilling our mandate in a meaningful and sustainable way.

Returning home is finding the house key – and discovering that the house has never stood still.

Homecoming 1945-47

About coming home after World War II.

Homecoming is an exhibition about reunion and emptiness. It conveys voices from the years after the war, when the Jews of Trondheim tried to return – to the city, to the synagogue, to an everyday life that was never the same. Through stories, objects and documents, we gain insight into the contradictions: hope and sorrow, community and exclusion, freedom and the cold walls of bureaucracy.

In the exhibition "Homecoming" we have collected a selection of moods and experiences, memories and stories from the Jewish community in Trondheim in the years 1945-1947. Through interviews, films, sound, photographs, forms and documents, objects, quotes and retellings, various aspects of the homecoming are conveyed.

The relief of coming home and despair over everyone who was gone. The feeling of helplessness in the face of a bureaucracy that was actually supposed to help. The desire to rebuild the Jewish community – and the experience of anti-Semitism that could still emerge when you least expected it.

Here you can find our digital version of the exhibition.

Background

The exhibition is the museum's commemoration of 75 years since the end of World War II and the end of the Holocaust.

When the war ended in 1945, the Jewish population in Trondheim had been halved. Those Jews who returned – from flight or captivity – were left with nothing. Most of what had been taken from them during the war years.

It started with the radios in 1940. In 1941, the Nazis took over the synagogue on Arkitekt Christies gate, and in the same year the first confiscations of property began. A law of 26 October 1942 deprived Norwegian Jews of everything they owned.

Contributors

The exhibition has been created in collaboration with

Ablemagic AS
Rallar architects AS

The music in the exhibition was composed and performed by Trygve Brøske .

The exhibition is made with support from:

from the Ministry of Local Government and District Affairs (then the Ministry of Local Government and Modernisation), the Fritt ord Foundation and the Arts Council. Thank you very much!