Pain, Memory, and Ethics: Dilemmas in Contemporary Museum Representation

Pain is one of the most intense and overwhelming experiences humans can face, which accompanies us from the beginning to the end of life (Schleifer, 2014, p. 79). Because of its emotional intensity, it naturally becomes a subject that institutions attempt to interpret, explain, or display. For this reason, in the current paper I examine the ethical challenges involved in representing emotionally charged objects of pain in museums, as well as in their architecture, focusing on the Jewish Museum in Berlin as a case study. According to this analysis, the museum primarily uses emotional atmosphere and architecture rather than detailed historical narration to convey the suffering of the Holocaust. This strategy avoids sensationalizing trauma, but it also runs the risk of reducing Jewish history to victimization and ignores crucial issues, especially those pertaining to historical context and the provenance of artifacts that were collected by the Nazis. Therefore, while the museum’s portrayal of suffering is emotionally effective, it remains ethically ambivalent.

Schleifer (2014) argues that “people in pain frequently report suffering from pain when they feel out of control,” suggesting that the loss of autonomy frequently makes pain unbearable. Pain is more than a physical sensation; it is also a profound emotional and perceptual experience, caused by fear, anger, guilt, loneliness, and helplessness (p. 98). This insight is especially relevant for museums which address collective trauma. The Jewish Museum in Berlin places visitors in spaces that are difficult to navigate, like narrow hallways and empty rooms. This is an example of how traumatic suffering makes it feel like there is no control. At the same time, Barclay and Stearns (2022) note that people often absorb each other’s discomfort through sympathy (p. 84), which explains why the museum doesn’t just show historical facts but also tries to get people emotionally involved. This strategy can help the audience feel more empathy and think more deeply, but it also raises moral questions about whether it makes them feel too uncomfortable or if it just turns history into sensations.

Based on Schleifer’s conception of pain as a loss of control, this emotion can be interpreted as a social and institutional phenomenon rather than only an individual experience. In their research article, Walsh and Kokoli (2022) argue that exhibition practices often obscure the power structures that shaped the acquisition of collections, leaving colonial histories largely unacknowledged and transforming objects into subtle markers of authority: “Museums’ techniques of display not only

obfuscate the power bases of its dissemination of knowledge but keep the museum’s ‘repressed ’origins out of sight.” They say that many artifacts were obtained through violent and coercive processes, and their displacement continues to affect the communities from which they were taken. This is why the authors propose viewing museums through the framework of trauma, emphasizing that historical wounds persist unless institutions openly address the harm embedded in their collections.

The Jewish Museum in Berlin is a building that holds within itself the pain and trauma experienced by approximately six million Jews during the Holocaust – the systematic genocide of approximately six million Jews under the Nazi regime during the Second World War. This museum consists of three buildings and was inaugurated in its original form in 2001, with Daniel Libeskind as its architect. From the very moment one enters the museum, the harsh reality endured by Jews can be felt: from the zigzag shapes and the empty spaces frequently encountered inside to the three axes, culminating in the chilling Holocaust Tower – all were designed to convey to the public the tragedies faced by a people who were profoundly wronged (Johnson, 2025). In other words, these spatial elements induce on a sensory level the historical pain experienced by Jewish communities in Germany: some were shot, others were sent to forced labour camps; they were subjected to abuse or even used as test subjects in experiments.

The Jewish Museum in Berlin differs from any other museum – it represents a place with immense emotional weight, which can be felt even before reading the first historical panel. Although the Jewish Museum does not contain objects obtained through colonial looting, as problematized by Walsh and Kokoli (2022) in relation to many Western museums, the authors ’theory invites us to analyse this institution from the perspective of other forms of historical trauma,

such as the confiscation and destruction of Jewish heritage during Nazism. This is explained by the fact that throughout the Second World War, many Jewish objects in Europe were confiscated by the Nazi regime, taken by force from Jewish families, or disappeared during the war and were later recovered without a clear provenance. In this sense, the museum might face a very sensitive issue regarding the origin of its objects, particularly concerning whom they belonged to before 1933, whether they were taken illegally, and whether they should be returned to their rightful heirs. Indeed, the museum officially acknowledges that some objects in the collection may have problematic Nazi provenance (Jewish Museum Berlin, 2026). However, uncertainty regarding the provenance of these objects raises questions of fairness, ownership, and the museum’s ongoing moral responsibility toward dispossessed families.

On the other hand, mentioning Barclay and Stearns ’(2022) argument on sympathy as a mechanism for the social sharing and assimilation of pain, the architecture of the building itself might place an excessive emphasis on Jewish trauma, particularly the discrimination and

marginalization they experienced during the Holocaust. In addition, Jennifer Hansen-Glucklich, in her book Holocaust Memory Reframed: Museums and the Challenges of Representation (2014), argues that the museum’s architectural style produces intentionally staged emotional experiences that might raise some ethical questions about the ways trauma is translated into museum aesthetics: “Ambiguous spaces that are open to interpretation, such as the Holocaust Tower, articulate questions and conflicts rather than solutions; they encourage visitors to imaginatively engage with the architecture” (pp. 51–52). Although the purpose of this museum is to educate Germans about the role of Jews in German life and to prepare them to confront future intolerance toward ethnic, religious, and cultural differences within a community (Hansen-Glucklich, 2014, p. 39), some visitors continue to see Jews primarily as victims of mass murder, rather than as intellectual individuals with a rich culture and traditions.

The Jewish Museum in Berlin offers a powerful way to understand the pain endured by millions of Jews, using symbolic architecture as well as personal objects and stories. This emotional approach raises important ethical questions, as transforming trauma into a guided experience can simplify suffering or make it feel like a spectacle. Understanding these challenges, allows the museum to honor the past while respecting the dignity of the people whose memories it preserves.

References

Barclay, K., & Stearns, P. N. (2022). The Routledge history of emotions in the modern world. Routledge.

Hansen-Glucklich, J. (2014). Holocaust memory reframed: Museums and the challenges of representation. Rutgers University Press. https://dokumen.pub/holocaust-memory-reframed-

Jewish Museum Berlin. (2026). Provenance research. https://www.jmberlin.de/en/topic-provenance-

Johnson, Frank. “Jewish Museum Berlin Germany: A Deep Dive into History, Architecture, and Enduring Legacy – Wonderful Museums.” Wonderful Museums, 6 Sept. 2025. 

Schleifer, R. (2014). Pain and suffering. New York: Routledge.

Walsh, M., & Kokoli, A. M. (2022). Trauma and repair in the museum: An introduction. Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society, 27(1), 4–19. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41282-022-00290-4

Jewish Museum Berlin. (n.d.). Libeskind building. https://www.jmberlin.de/en/libeskind-building

Frommers. (n.d.). Jüdisches Museum (Jewish Museum). https://www.frommers.com/destinations/berlin/attractions/jdisches-museum-jewish-museum/

Astrid. (2011, January 20). The Jewish Museum in Berlin. Change Here. https://changehere.wordpress.com/2011/01/20/the-jewish-museum-in-berlin/

Jonkman, G. (n.d.). [Photograph of a Holocaust museum]. Fine Art America. https://fineartamerica.com/art/photographs/holocaust+museum