Threads

“Threads” explores the networks and life stories of 25 Jewish families who once lived in Chemnitz. It connects their biographies and rediscovers their lost
stories.

At the heart of the exhibition are Karl and Irmi Goeritz. They owned a textile factory in Chemnitz and, together with other Jewish entrepreneurial families, formed a strong economic, social, and cultural network. After the Nazis came to power in 1933, some Jewish families emigrated, while others remained, were deported, and murdered. More and more threads of the former network snapped, nodes came undone, holes appeared, and it soon became nothing more than a faint memory.

The descendants of these families provided the exhibition with photos and personal items. The objects bear witness to the families’ former happiness and their strong ties to the city of Chemnitz, but also to the path toward emigration or a deadly dead end.

© Veronica Selver