The new special exhibition in the Haus der Geschichte in cooperation with the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Research on the Consequences of War deals with childhood and youth before, during and after the Second World War. The period covers the last months of the Schuschnigg dictatorship, the Anschluss in 1938, the beginning of the war in 1939, the end of the war in 1945 and the occupation period which lasted until 1955.

The exhibition focuses on contemporary witnesses from different backgrounds and their memorabilia: they bring the lives of those times closer in a personal and comprehensible way.

They experienced bombing, flight, persecution and the loss of family members. Under the Nazi regime, they grew up with the utopia of the “people's community” - as part of it or excluded from it. Their fathers were often absent: as soldiers at the front and in captivity. They were indoctrinated at school, in the Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls and were a welcome motif for the propaganda of the “Third Reich”. As Jews, they experienced the inhumane hardships of concentration camps and forced labor. Many of them were murdered. The children of the war generation had to grow up early and take on responsibility. Their scope was limited - and yet they used it in their own way.

The special exhibition is also explicitly aimed at today's children and young people: even though the events and crimes of the Second World War took place three generations ago, they still have an impact today.

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