Exhibition

This site gives essential information about the Exhibition The Girls of Room 28. 

The exhibition was created to complement the book The Girls of Room 28, first published in April 2004 by Droemer Publishing House, Munich. The idea was to make it easier for the survivors to tell their stories to young people along the panels. This hope was fulfilled. For many years, the survivors accompanied the exhibition and shared their stories with young people all over the country, especially in Germany and the Czech Republic.

Today this is no longer possible. Most survivors are gone. But their legacy lives on—in the publications of Edition Room 28, in the images and testimonies captured in the exhibition, and in the extensive audio and film archive of the author Hannelore Brenner, which is a treasure trove of material waiting to be explored for use in the exhibition and educational project. Her archive is a valuable resource for anyone interested in learning about the experiences and fates of the Girls of Room 28. 

Learn more about our concept for making our exhibition and educational project ready for the future and ensuring that the voices of the “The Girls of Room 28” continue to be heard on:

Should you want to support and donate: An easy way to donate is over the Donation Platform Betterplace. Of course, you can also transfer your donation directly to our account. We very much appreciate your support!

The author Hannelore Brenner has an extensive media archive with audio recordings/interviews with the survivors of Room 28 and further survivors of Theresienstadt and Auschwitz. These interviews began with her research for the radio-documentary about the children's opera "Brundibár" produced by Sender Freies Berlin in 1997 under the title "Brundibár and the children of Theresienstadt" and a year later by Austrian Radio in Vienna. It was then when the author allied with the group of women who once lived in Room 28 in the Girls' Home L410 together. The interviews were continued till the book came out in 2004. Further film and interview projects followed, all of them forming part of the Room 28 Media Archive. 

Many quotes in the book and in the exhibition The Girls of Room 28 come from this precious media-archive. We will explore and digitise it and make it a part of the exhibition and the educational project thus bringing the story to life and highlighting the special quality and authenticity of this project of remembrance.

The first pages of the Compendium gives an impression of how this project started, sheds light on the work of the author with these women and on their annual meetings in Spindlermühle in the Czech Republic starting in September 1998. You are welcome to download these pages. 

• English film: The Girls of Room 28. Promotionfilm for a planned English documentary. Room 28 Production,15' 
• German film: Ich wandre durch Theresienstadt. Auf den Spuren der Mädchen von Zimmer 28. 2009. Room 28 Production, 20'
• German film: Die Mädchen von Zimmer 28. Erinnerungen von Helga Kinsky, Ela Weissberger, Anna Hanusová. Marienbad, September 2010, 15'
• Memory Drops. Film made in Israel by Eliana Schejter and Addie Reiss for Room 28. Hanka Weingarten, Handa Drori, Judith Rosenzweig, Eva Zohar and Vera Kreiner remember Room 28. 2012,12'. 

We share the film Memory Drops with those interested in our project and considering to support our Project of Remembrance and Education.

The project was born from the survivors’ desire to remember and share their stories with young people and has grown over three decades into a living legacy of friendship, hope and humanity carried forward by those who were touched and inspired by their story. It is a story that is more than a chapter of the Holocaust and "More than memories of a dark time", as Professor Peter Gstettner titled his contribution to the Compendium.   

We gladly offer you to read his contribution to the Compendium, as well as those from Detlef Pech and Bertram Noback, all renowned educational scientists and experts in Holocaust education. 

The brochure The Creation of a Lasting Memory (English language) by Hannelore Brenner is the key literature to the overall project. It gives an insight into a unique German-Jewish project which developed over a period of 30 years and roots in the desire of the survivors of Room 28 of Girls’ Home L 410 in the Theresienstadt Ghetto to create a Lasting Memory. More on: Legacy