The Wehrmacht Exhibition

Gabriel Fawcett examines the controversy surrounding the Wehrmacht exhibition.

I can’t believe that. I can’t believe it. They were shot at, they had to defend themselves … they had to. I don’t believe these pictures of arbitrary shootings and hangings. I don’t believe my uncles are murderers’. The woman walks away from her interviewer, then turns to the camera, adding for good measure: ‘I don’t believe my grandfather was a murderer either. I can’t believe it. Otherwise I would have to hang myself.’ This scene is played on a video clip at the recently overhauled Wehrmacht exhibition held in Berlin and Bielefeld this winter. The woman was a visitor to the exhibition when it was first displayed in 1995 in Vienna (where it will open next, in April) and the video of her reaction to it is now an exhibit.

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