The Freie Universität Berlin (FU) has decided a travelling exhibition on anti-Jewish pogroms cannot be exhibited in the university building, fearing an “emotional reaction” from students.
According to an FU spokesperson, the university building’s foyer may not offer the right platform, according to the opinion of its executive board, news outlet Tagesspiegel reported.
The Friedrich Meinecke Institute for History had agreed to host the exhibition but was overruled by the FU’s vice president, Professor Verena Blechinger-Talcott.
The university had concerns about “intense debates” from the exhibition, the spokesperson said, adding that unsupervised exhibitions “of all kinds and on various topics that can evoke emotional reactions” often posed challenges to public order.
In October, masked individuals broke into an FU building, threatening employees with axes, saws, crowbars, and clubs.
In February 2024, a Jewish student was beaten into the hospital with broken bones in his face. The university later claimed it was legally impossible to expel the culprit.
The exhibition, called “The Vicious Circle”, is run by the National Holocaust Centre and Museum, based in the British town of Newark. It deals with the history of violent attacks on five Jewish communities, from the Nazi era to the present.
Recent lectures on anti-Semitism have also been cancelled at the University of Freiburg, with a lecture by an Israeli professor also cancelled at Leipzig University.
The presidium said it is “in no way bothered by the content or forms of presentation of the exhibition”, but argued a museum could offer a more “suitable context”, with input from experts.
The exhibition–in the form of a circle–features images of the pogroms, accompanied by anti-Semitic quotes from Adolf Hitler, Palestinian leader Mohammed Amin al-Husseini, and Hamas ideologues.
The exhibition was to explore the “psychology of pogromists.” It also discussed the “alliance between left-wing extremists and Islamists” that is allegedly spreading anti-Jewish narratives.
Also included in the display was the Hamas massacre in Israel on October 7, 2023. The museum wanted to show the travelling exhibition at the FU for a week in January or February 2025.
Maiken Umbach, the museum’s chief academic advisor, told the Tagesspiegel she had planned a program of “academic and public events” together with the Meinecke Institute.
Amid the Gaza war, the FU made headlines due to protests and occupations of university edifices by pro-Palestinian students.
