Designed in the second half of the 90s, the Jewish Museum in Berlin opened in September 2011.The modern architectural elements of the Libeskind building comprise the zinc façade, (described as “An irrational and invisible matrix”), the Garden of Exile (which attempts “to completely disorient the visitor [and] represents a shipwreck of history”), the three Axes of the German-Jewish experience, and the Voids (which refer to “that which can never be exhibited when it comes to Jewish Berlin history: Humanity reduced to ashes”).Together these pieces form a visual and spatial language rich with history and symbolism. In the words of the architect: “The official name of the project is ‘Jewish Museum’ but I have named it ‘Between the Lines’ because for me it is about two lines of thinking, organization, and relationship. One is a straight line, but broken into many fragments, the other is a tortuous line, but continuing indefinitely.” In some way, Libeskind imagines the continuation of both lines throughout the city of Berlin and beyond.
Published to mark the display of library of exile at the British Museum, this beautifully produced new book reflects on the themes raised by de Waal's thought-provoking work of art. A preface by Booker Prize-nominated author Elif Shafak reflects on the importance of literature and its capacity to transcend language and borders. The introduction from Hartwig Fischer, Director of the British Museum, positions the artwork within the wider context of the Museum's collection, highlighting the dialogue between objects from across time and throughout history and the contemporary. Finally, de Waal concentrates on the work itself, its journey to the British Museum via Venice and Dresden, and its future role in the foundation of the New University Library in Mosul.
Erik Larson, New York Times bestselling author of Devil in the White City, delivers a remarkable story set during Hitler’s rise to power. The time is 1933, the place, Berlin, when William E. Dodd becomes America’s first ambassador to Hitler’s Nazi Germany in a year that proved to be a turning point in history. A mild-mannered professor from Chicago, Dodd brings along his wife, son, and flamboyant daughter, Martha. At first Martha is entranced by the parties and pomp, and the handsome young men of the Third Reich with their infectious enthusiasm for restoring Germany to a position of world prominence. Enamored of the “New Germany,” she has one affair after another, including with the suprisingly honorable first chief of the Gestapo, Rudolf Diels. But as evidence of Jewish persecution mounts, confirmed by chilling first-person testimony, her father telegraphs his concerns to a largely indifferent State Department back home. Dodd watches with alarm as Jews are attacked, the press is censored, and drafts of frightening new laws begin to circulate. As that first year unfolds and the shadows deepen, the Dodds experience days full of excitement, intrigue, romance—and ultimately, horror, when a climactic spasm of violence and murder reveals Hitler’s true character and ruthless ambition. Suffused with the tense atmosphere of the period, and with unforgettable portraits of the bizarre Göring and the expectedly charming--yet wholly sinister--Goebbels, In the Garden of Beasts lends a stunning, eyewitness perspective on events as they unfold in real time, revealing an era of surprising nuance and complexity. The result is a dazzling, addictively readable work that speaks volumes about why the world did not recognize the grave threat posed by Hitler until Berlin, and Europe, were awash in blood and terror.
One of the most intriguing and engaging voices in contemporary Christianity is that of the Irish poet, Pádraig Ó Tuama and this is his first, long-awaited poetry collection. Hailing from the Ikon community in Belfast and working closely with its founder, the bestselling writer Pete Rollins, Pádraig’s poetry interweaves parable, poetry, art, activism and philosophy into an original and striking expression of faith. Pádraig’s poems are accessible, memorable profound and challenging. They emerge powerfully from a context of struggle and conflict and yet are filled with hope.
When Hitler marched into Austria in March 1938, the country's Jewish population numbered nearly 200,000. Those Jews who were able to find refuge in neutral countries were safe; those who fled to countries subsequently overrun by the Nazis were eventually hunted down. Between 1938 and 1945, more than 50,000 Austrian Jews were deported; no more than 2,000 returned. The estimate of Jews caught by the Nazis in neighboring countries is 17,000. Therefore, more than one-third of Austria's Jewish population were killed during this period. After extensive research of the records at the various documentation centers and using primary as well as secondary sources, Schneider relates how Jews lived in Austria until either flight or deportation; she follows the transports to their destination and, using the fate of family and friends as examples, describes the experiences in the camps, as well as the homecoming of the survivors. In the process, Schneider provides the most detailed account available on the fate of exiles and victims from Austria. She concludes with a complete list of all camp survivors. A gripping historical record for all students of the Holocaust and modern European history.
A “fascinatingly readable” novel that ponders “where the personal becomes the political or if it is possible to maintain a distinction at all” (Miami Herald). In his fifty-four years in the US Senate, Kim Malone made a difference. Emulating FDR, he advocated and agitated, fighting for the ideals in which he believed. His son, Alec, however, was a different story—one Kim thinks on as he lies on his deathbed, with only the prodigal Alec for company. Eschewing his congressional heritage for a career as a newspaper photographer and distancing himself even further from politics by refusing to cover the Vietnam War, Alec has seemed to live a never-ending series of misadventures, complete with a failed marriage and a floundering vocation. So when his long-absent father-in-law, an antifascist commando from Czechoslovakia, appears on his doorstep, Alec finds himself confronting uncomfortable truths about his life, his choices, and the pasts of those surrounding him. Ward Just has been praised as “one of the most astute writers of American fiction,” and Exiles in the Garden stands as one of his most challenging, insightful, and compulsively readable works—an examination of personal morality, American politics, and the universal desires that bind us all (The New York Times Book Review).
Poems steeped in the Somali tradition refract the streets of Ferguson, the halls of Guantanamo, and the fields near Abu Ghraib through the myth of Adam and Eve to ask: What does it mean to be a refugee?
Making the Geologic Now announces shifts in cultural sensibilities and practices. It offers early sightings of an increasingly widespread turn toward the geologic as source of explanation, motivation, and inspiration for creative responses to conditions of the present moment. In the spirit of a broadside, this edited collection circulates images and short essays from over 40 artists, designers, architects, scholars, and journalists who are actively exploring and creatively responding to the geologic depth of "now." Contributors' ideas and works are drawn from architecture, design, contemporary philosophy and art. They are offered as test sites for what might become thinkable or possible if humans were to collectively take up the geologic as our instructive co-designer-as a partner in designing thoughts, objects, systems, and experiences. A new cultural sensibility is emerging. As we struggle to understand and meet new material realities of earth and life on earth, it becomes increasingly obvious that the geologic is not just about rocks. We now cohabit with the geologic in unprecedented ways, in teeming assemblages of exchange and interaction among geologic materials and forces and the bio, cosmo, socio, political, legal, economic, strategic, and imaginary. As a reading and viewing experience, Making the Geologic Now is designed to move through culture, sounding an alert from the unfolding edge of the "geologic turn" that is now propagating through contemporary ideas and practices. Contributors include: Matt Baker, Jarrod Beck, Stephen Becker, Brooke Belisle, Jane Bennett, David Benque, Canary Project (Susannah Sayler, Edward Morris), Center for Land Use Interpretation, Brian Davis, Seth Denizen, Anthony Easton, Elizabeth Ellsworth, Valeria Federighi, William L. Fox, David Gersten, Bill Gilbert, Oliver Goodhall, John Gordon, Ilana Halperin, Lisa Hirmer, Rob Holmes, Katie Holten, Jane Hutton, Julia Kagan, Wade Kavanaugh, Oliver Kellhammer, Elizabeth Kolbert, Janike Kampevold Larsen, Jamie Kruse, William Lamson, Tim Maly, Geoff Manaugh, Don McKay, Rachel McRae, Brett Milligan, Christian MilNeil, Laura Moriarity, Stephen Nguyen, Erika Osborne, Trevor Paglen, Anne Reeve, Chris Rose, Victoria Sambunaris, Paul Lloyd Sargent, Antonio Stoppani, Rachel Sussman, Shimpei Takeda, Chris Taylor, Ryan Thompson, Etienne Turpin, Nicola Twilley, Bryan M. Wilson.
