This is another exhibit at the museum which is from their special exhibition “Memory Is” which is running until May 2026. I’ve visited a lot of museums which have exhibits about the Second World War and the advance of the Nazis, but I can’t recall ever seeing an item which was in a shop during Kristallnacht on 9 and 10 November 1938. This hat was located at the Heinrich Rothschild Hat and Accessories Stall in Sendlinger Strasse (the site is now the Tretter shoe store) and it was badly damaged during the pogrom and then forcibly liquidated soon after.
The above photo was taken after the pogrom and shows the shop boarded up following the attacks. The Munich City Museum’s director, Konrad Schießl, purchased 92 of the shop’s hats at a heavily discounted price, something which I think showed some considerable foresight. It wasn’t clear that anyone knew what to do with the though and they languished in the museum’s stores and their provenance was left unquestioned. In 2016, the museum wanted to put them on display and they made efforts to find the descendants of the owners and the family allowed the museum to keep the items so that they can remain as exhibits.
Katrina Recker, the great-granddaughter of the former shop owner Heinrich Rothschild, noted:
“In the name of my family, I am deeply grateful that this hat, a very personal and moving contemporary witness, now stands as an eternal reminder of the fate of millions of Jewish families during that time. Never forget and never again.”
And it’s an intriguing thought that this hat was inside the shop when the pogrom took place, it’s another very powerful exhibit that the museum has chosen to put on display.