Images of Identity. The Collection of Berlin’s Pre-War Jewish Museum / Jewish Historical Institute

 The Jewish Museum in Berlin only existed for five years, but it managed to assemble an impressive collection of sculptures, paintings, prints, and Judaica. After the November Pogrom in Germany, also known as the Kristallnacht, the authorities dissolved the museum, and the items from its collection became scattered around the world or were irretrievably lost. What survived was a so-called iconographic archive – over four thousand cardstock boards holding photos, engravings, and drawings documenting the wealth of pre-war Jewish art and culture. After the Second World War, the collection was discovered in a post-German warehouse in Lower Silesia. Following the expropriation of former German property, the State Treasury of Poland handed over the archive to the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, where it has remained until today.