From the moment the Nazi regime took hold in 1930s Germany, Jewish people were systematically stripped of their rights, livelihoods, and identities.
They were excluded from society, forced out of jobs, schools, and homes. Alongside this erasure came the theft of property, both public and deeply personal: from valuable paintings to furniture, from professional tools to everyday objects that held family memory and meaning.
This event explores the emotional and cultural weight of what was lost, and what has, or has not, been returned. We focus not only on what was taken, but on what it means to live in the aftermath: to grow up with the absence of things that once formed the fabric of daily life; to discover the story behind an object in a stranger’s home or a museum collection; to wrestle with silence, bureaucracy, or the sudden shock of recognition.
Drawing on personal stories and voices from the world of restitution, we ask: What does it mean to have your personal belongings taken, misplaced, or repurposed by history? What efforts were made to restore what was lost, and what barriers still remain? How are these losses still being felt across generations?
Through conversation, film, and music, we will explore not only the legal processes of restitution, but its emotional landscape, what it means when all that is left of a life is a list, a photograph, or an ordinary object carrying extraordinary weight.
