60 years of Naked Among Wolves”: traveling exhibition opens in Passau!

60 years of Naked Among Wolves”: traveling exhibition opens in Passau!

The traveling exhibition “60 Years of ‘Naked Among Wolves’” is presented at the University of Passau and celebrates the significant anniversaries of the DEFA film and the novel by Bruno Apitz. The exhibition opens on October 14, 2023 at 6 p.m. in the foyer of the Central Library of the University of Passau and was designed by Prof. Dr. Dennis Gräf, a literary and media scientist. It illuminates the cultural, social and media contexts of history.

“Naked Among Wolves” is about the rescue of a Jewish child in the Buchenwald concentration camp during the final days of World War II. The film from the German Democratic Republic, directed by Frank Beyer, premiered on April 10, 1963 and plays a central role in the anti-fascist discourse of the GDR. The Buchenwald story addresses the conflict between organizational discipline and human values ​​and has received numerous awards.

Exhibition content and stations

The exhibition consists of 15 stations that deal with important topics on the history of the “Buchenwald Child”, structures of the Buchenwald concentration camp and the significance of anti-fascism and communist resistance in the GDR. It also offers the option of accessing additional information using QR codes. The traveling exhibition has already made stops in cities such as Berlin, Erfurt and Jena before arriving in Passau. The initiators invite visitors to critically examine the historical documentation.

The story by Bruno Apitz, who was himself a prisoner in Buchenwald, has been filmed several times, but the depiction of events has often been criticized as inaccurate. Ines Geipel, a writer and critic of GDR history, criticized the censorship and the distortion of historical facts, while Marko Feingold, a Buchenwald survivor, noted that the portrayal of the prisoners' "self-liberation" was misleading. He emphasizes that the US Army liberated the camp and not the prisoners themselves.

The role of antifascism in the GDR

The film and the novel have shaped the image of the anti-fascist struggle in the GDR, but historians argue that the process of coming to terms with the Nazi past was inadequate. Rüdiger Bergien points out that many perpetrators and followers from the Nazi era were integrated into the new structures of the GDR. Anti-fascism was presented one-sidedly, which relieved social responsibility in the post-war period.

Overall, the exhibition in Passau is intended to provide a space for reflection on these complex topics and to help question the often distorted narratives of anti-fascism as well as the real events in the Buchenwald concentration camp.

Anyone interested can contact Nicola Jacobi and Katrina Jordan using the contact details provided for further information about the traveling exhibition “60 Years of ‘Naked Among Wolves’”.

The story of Buchenwald is part of our collective memory and requires an honest examination of the past and its consequences.

For further information about the film “Naked Among Wolves” and its background, see the DEFA Foundation, which offers comprehensive information on the film aspects and awards. Deutschlandfunk Kultur also analyzed the myths and lies of anti-fascism in the GDR, which stimulates a critical examination of this topic.

For more details visit the University of Passau, the DEFA Foundation and Deutschlandfunk culture.