Jewish Museum Hohenems

The Jewish Museum of Hohenems remembers the Jewish community of Hohenems and its various contributions to the development of Vorarlberg and the surrounding regions of the Alps. It tells a story about the Diaspora and it confronts contemporary questions of Jewish life and culture in Europe, questions of living together and of migration. The museum also deals with the end of the community of Hohenems, the regional Nazi history, the expulsion or deportation of the last members of the community, anti-Semitism and the Holocaust.
Along with these fragmented lines of regional and global history, it is also devoted to the people, their experiences and their histories. And it maintains a close relationship with the descendants of Jewish families from Hohenems around the world. The museum offers annually changing exhibitions and an extensive program of events.

The permanent exhibition in the Heimann-Rosenthal Villa, built in 1864, documents the history of the Jewish community in Hohenems which existed for over three centuries until its destruction during the era of the Nazi regime. And it tells about new beginnings after 1945 and the life of the Hohenems Diaspora.
Audio guides and video installation in German, English and French make the exhibition accessible to an international audience. They put individual experiences in the context of European networks, at the crossroads of Austria, Switzerland, Germany, and Liechtenstein. Young visitors ages 6 years and upward will find a children’s exhibition with stories by Monika Helfer and shadow-play images by Barbara Steinitz.

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