I said, ‘Auf Wiedersehen’ — 85 Years of Kindertransport to Britain
Description of the project from the Berthold Leibinger Stiftung website:
The initiative to save mainly Jewish children and young people from National Socialist persecution is the focus of the exhibition I said, ‘Auf Wiedersehen’. The exhibition presents selected letters from five Jewish families. Each document conveys an aspect of the painful separation of parents and children. The letters provide an insight into the ambivalent emotions of the parents left behind in the Nazi state, who vacillate between the hope of a reunion and the fear of permanent separation.
The exhibition took place at Paul-Löbe-Haus, German Bundestag, from January 31st until February 23rd, 2024. The exhibition graphics and campaign design were created by Distaff Studio, commissioned by the Berthold Leibinger Stiftung. The project was led and curated by Ruth Ur and the Freundeskreis Yad Vashem, the exhibition architecture was conceived by Kooperative für Darstellungspolitik. The texts were set in HAL Repost and HAL Four Grotesk, both published by HAL Typefaces.
Along with a poster campaign, which was awarded amongst the 100 Beste Plakate, a catalog was created for the exhibition, which is also available digitally. An impression of the exhibition can be viewed on YouTube.
From the website of Distaff Studio:
To this day, the Kindertransport is considered one of the most ambitious rescue operations to save children from certain death during the time of Nazi persecution. I said ‘Auf Wiedersehen’ presents five selected documents from five Jewish families. It depicts parents torn between the hope of reunion and the fear of estrangement and permanent separation, children caught between two worlds, and the host families trying to offer comfort.
Six displays showcase representative quotes on their front sides, while the backs tell the stories through numerous documents and photographs. The chosen blue, inspired by the ink of handwritten letters, unites all elements into a common narrative. Furthermore, we connect the media and the exhibition through a sender’s stamp. This stamp also links the individual quotes, which we carried out into the city as part of a poster campaign, their open wording building a bridge between the fates of the past and the experiences of the present.
