May 30, 2016
When I reveal to new acquaintances that I am the Marketing Manager at Sydney Jewish Museum, I am often met with one of three reactions:
Understandably, the last reaction tends to make me cringe. It is true, after all, that with the new Holocaust exhibition expected to open in November, I have, and will be devoting significant time and resources to ensuring that the exhibition is heavily promoted in an attempt to spike curiosity and inspire people to visit.
It is also true that the Holocaust has become the focus of a type of tourism that sees visitors flock in their thousands to sites such as Auschwitz, the Anne Frank House, Yad Vashem and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
And yet, the notion of ‘selling the Holocaust’ is divisive, disturbing and problematic for academics, Jewish and non-Jewish communities alike. I myself react strongly to the idea that I am taking a narrative, a tragedy and a deep cultural wound and capitalising on it.
The concept of ‘disaster marketing’ is not specific to the Holocaust alone. I watched with interest some years ago as the foundation responsible for the National September 11 Memorial Museum in New York tried to navigate this murky space.
In the months and years that it took to establish the 9/11 Museum, the foundation was simultaneously accused of ‘using the memory of the deceased to create a cash cow’, ‘ritualising grief on a loop’ and ‘subsuming educational material in an emotionally manipulative narrative, punctuated by fraught objects and amplified by every architectural, cinematic, literary and religious tool available.’
The critique could have been lifted from the ‘comments section’ of every Holocaust Museum around the world.
And yet, while the presentation and representation may be scrutinised, few would doubt the need for these communal spaces of commemoration, remembrance and mourning or argue against the significance of a Museum that documents tragedy, encourages conversation and stands in opposition to dangerous and willful denial.
During my time at the SJM, I have developed three personal guiding principles, which govern how I represent the Museum and its work to the public:
With these thoughts in mind, I begin the process of ‘Marketing’ our new exhibition.
Author: Natalia Thomas, Marketing Manager
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