It looks bleak: Haman, the grand vizier at Susa's court, has had a huge gallows erected.

The day he has drawn for the annihilation of all Jews in the Persian Empire is almost here.

But Esther finds a way out, as can be read in the Old Testament and the Hebrew Bible: The young queen of Jewish origin reveals that Haman has planned a pogrom.

She reveals her parentage and begs her husband, the king, for her life - and that of all Jews.

She is heard.

And Haman experiences bitter revenge: he is hanged on his own gallows.

On Adar 14, which falls on March 17 this year, Jews still remember Esther's brave deed and celebrate Purim.

When the Esther scroll is read for this, a ratchet is struck each time the name of Haman is mentioned.

Their noise extinguishes the enemy even in word.

Theresa White

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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A dark story.

But also a reversal of the violent history of the Jewish people.

At its heart is bloody retribution, the "dark side of justice," as Mirjam Wenzel, director of the Jewish Museum, puts it.

In her house you can now get to know revenge in all shades.

On display are sound installations, comics about Samson bringing down the Philistine Temple and a baseball bat: In the Tarantino film "Inglourious Basterds" the original prop belongs to the Bear Jew who hunts Nazis.

In the museum café "Flow Deli" you can even taste revenge: it is served there as a cold drink.

The exhibition itself is a bit like a comic: colorful, sometimes loud, graphic, sometimes funny, always highly emotional.

It has strong pop culture influences and appeals to a broad audience, including a younger audience.

It overstretches, quotes and provokes - for example with the dramatic staging of the baseball bat, which forms the start of the tour through the more than 600 square meter exhibition with 80 exhibits.

Accompanied is "Revenge.

History and Fantasy" from an extensive film and lecture program as well as a podcast.

Depressing topicality of the exhibition

For the first time ever, a show is dedicated to the topos of “revenge” in Jewish cultural history.

Biblical stories are told using documents, paintings and objects.

For example, that of Judith beheading Holofernes, as depicted in Jacopo Ligozzi's masterpiece Judith and Holofernes, loaned to the Jewish Museum Frankfurt by the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

Jewish figures such as the golem are presented and the anti-Semitic myth of the avenging Jew exposed as fake news: the show uses rabbinical writings to illustrate the understanding that revenge is reserved for God himself.

The well-known principle "an eye for an eye" is therefore to be understood in Jewish jurisprudence as a rule for damages: equivalent compensation must be provided.

The focus is also on the lack of retribution after the Shoah catastrophe, giving the exhibition an oppressive topicality.

"Many survivors have waited their entire lives for adequate compensation and for the perpetrators to be punished," said Ina Hartwig (SPD), Head of the Cultural Affairs Department, at the opening.

That has not happened – many perpetrators were not brought to justice, and those who were convicted often got away with short prison sentences.

"One death equaled ten minutes in prison," Hartwig quotes a contemporary comment.

A bitter experience for the people who had to endure the most inhumane crimes.

It continues to have an impact on the following generations: anger arises, but also the desire to shed the role of victim and to be perceived as an active subject, to direct attention to the resistance, according to Max Czollek, poet, author and one of the ideas behind the exhibition.

The young generation is looking for other narratives.

“This will lead to new debates on Jewish self-image”

For Jews from the former Soviet Union and their descendants, who make up around 90 percent of the Jews living in Germany today, completely different stories would apply: “They won the war.

They liberated Auschwitz,” said Czollek.

Other narratives also appeared in historically counterfactual revenge fantasies such as the Tarantino film or the series “Hunters”, in which, in superhero fashion, Jews in New York in the 1970s hunt down Nazis who had fled Germany.

All these aspects can also be found in the new temporary exhibition, which will be on display from March 18th to mid-July.

"This will lead to new debates about the Jewish self-image," says Doron Kiesel, head of the science department at the Central Council of Jews.

The show reports on the few acts of revenge that actually took place during and after the National Socialists' policy of extermination.

And the testimonies of many Jews who fell in battle also have a place.

"Revenge is your duty.

Heed their command, by day, by night, avenge the blood that has been shed, just as we do not remain silent in the face of death,” wrote resistance fighter Zippora Birman in her legacy.

She died defending the Białystok ghetto in 1943. "Cursed be he who reads this, sighs and goes about his day."