Temporary exhibition “Gallery of the Righteous”

From September 25 to November 2, 2025, the Jewish Museum Creglingen Foundation will present the exhibition “Gallery of the Righteous” by the Studentwerk White Rose e.V./Weingarten.
The exhibition includes 54 selected artistic portraits of people who resisted Nazi tyranny, each accompanied by a biographical text. Using the examples of the resistance fighters portrayed and their biographies, it shows the values of the resistance fighters, their sense of responsibility, and their inner strength. About half of these people have a connection to southwestern Germany through their origins or activities, while the other half come from all over the former Reich territory. The exhibition thus focuses on regionality, but at the same time achieves a high degree of representativeness for the Nazi resistance in Germany as a whole.
Although neither the command centers of the National Socialists nor the large inner-German concentration camps were located in southwestern Germany, it was here in Grafeneck that the extermination of human life began. At the same time, this is where the most diverse resistance took place. Resistance from assassins, Christians and Jews, from the students of the White Rose, from rescuers, from intellectual pioneers and educators, from people in the political and military spheres, from workers and trade unionists.
Over 30 different artists have explored the history of the subjects portrayed, producing a wide variety of results. This allows viewers to engage not only with the lives of those depicted, but also with the respective artistic interpretations.
The individuals portrayed did not engage in resistance for monocausal reasons alone. In each case, specific motives were also at the forefront. The portraits are grouped according to these motives, such as worker resistance, Christian resistance, intellectual resistance, military resistance, political resistance, Jewish resistance, and the White Rose. In addition, representatives of various victim groups have been included in the gallery.
The exhibition includes portraits of Leo Baeck, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Buber, Georg Elser, Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, Romano Guardini, Franz Jägerstetter, Franz Klauser, Maximilian Kolbe, Julius Leber, Hans Oster, Karl Rueff, Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl, Claus Schenk von Staufenberg, and Edith Stein. The selection of images provides a representative insight into the various groups mentioned above.
However, the exhibition also asks viewers to consider their own moral courage and their contribution to our free, democratic society, encouraging them to “walk upright” in both their private and public lives.
Due to space restrictions, the exhibition at the Jewish Museum in Creglingen will be presented in two parts. The first 27 pictures will be on display from September 25 to October 12. Halfway through the exhibition, the pictures will be replaced and the remaining 27 pictures will be shown from October 19 to November 2.
The exhibition will open at the Jewish Museum on September 25 at 7:00 p.m. Hendrik Schuler and Birgit Brüggemann from the Gedenkstättenkuratorium NS-Dokumentation Oberschwaben e.V. (Memorial Site Curatorship NS Documentation Upper Swabia) will introduce the exhibition.