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| The museum The Jewish Museum in Hohenems was opened in April 1991 in the Heimann Rosenthal Villa in the centre of the former Jewish quarter of the city. This was the provisional closing point of a discussion , which was lead during the seventies to commemorate the extinguished Jewish community of Hohenems. The museum does not concern itself with a general history of Judaism, but mainly presents local and regional relationships on the topic. The few remaining objects from the Jewish community of Hohenems are testament to the elimination of all Jewish traces in Vorarlberg. The predominantly two-dimensional exhibits are therefore made accessible to visitors of the museum through a complex, multi-layered system of representation, translation and filing. Additionally, other forms of media such as video, acoustic installations and slides are also employed. Thematically and chronologically, the museum covers the times of the insecure existence of the 'Schutzjuden' ('chartered Jews') in the 17th century through to religious life in the synagogue and everyday life, Jewish-Christian life together, the period of the cultural and political departure into the liberal area of the second half of the 19th century, right up until the times of the persecution and destruction of people of Jewish descent and Jewish religion in the Nazi era. One chapter about Jewish refugees in post-war times ends the exhibition of temporary cohabitation of majority and minority. Architectonically, the Heimann-Rosenthal Villa has been changed functionally and semantically from a private home to a public museum. At the same time however, the house has kept its quality as an exhibit through its historical characteristics. |