PLEASE READ FULL TEXT.
My text contribution for:
De VRIJDAGAVOND
Online Joodse Magazine.
Once again, Auschwitz is being misused to save Joseph Beuys's reputation, now at Castle Moyland
Auschwitz misbruikt om de reputatie van Joseph Beuys te redden, nu in Kasteel Moyland
Dutch version
English version:
I am really saddened [...once again] to read about the new attempt of 'Museum Schloss Moyland, Germany', to falsify the history of "Joseph Beuys, and Auschwitz":
Museum Schloss Moyland - Auschwitz and the Second World War in the work of Joseph Beuys 30 March - 2 November 2025
Excerpt press release:........"It reveals that throughout his career, from the 1940s to the 1980s, Beuys consistently engaged with themes of the Second World War and, most notably, Auschwitz, expressing these profound historical traumas in a variety of artistic ways"
Please note, the curators of - Auschwitz and the Second World War in the work of Joseph Beuys - Alexander Grönert [who actually visited me, and Linda Bouws [curator of 'On Friendship / (Collateral Damage') in 2024, in our home, in Amsterdam], and Angela Steffen, still refrain from inviting, or even mentioning our project.
On Friendship / (Collateral Damage) IV
HOW TO EXPLAIN HARE HUNTING TO A DEAD GERMAN ARTIST
There is no secret here, Jose[f]ph Beuys was not busy, neither with the Jewish Shoah, nor with the history of Auschwitz in particular.
Of the outcome of the argument, there is no doubt, a project as such cannot be spontaneous, it must have a cause - namely, an attempt to rewrite a certain history. So, as we all know, there is visible evidence - Jose[f]ph Beuys never mentioned the Shoah or Auschwitz in his entire creative life. That is, except on behalf of these two events.
1.
Jose[f]ph Beuys simply participated in 1957 [...one artist out of 300 artists] in an international architectural competition, which was organized by the International Union of Architects UIA, and the International Auschwitz Committee. The subject was to design a monument in the territory of Auschwitz II - Birkenau concentration camp - to commemorate as it were, the victims, and to serve as a MaKOM [a Place] of universal remembrance.
Hereafter, one should remember that Jose[f]ph Beuys' proposal was to transform the entire area of Auschwitz II-Birkenau concentration camp into a [symbolic] Catholic Cathedral.
See my reaction/interview [SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG MAGAZIN 7 May 2021]
page 32
Joseph Sassoon Semah (artist):
The idea of erecting a memorial in Auschwitz is shameful per se. Auschwitz itself is already always the memorial. But his [Jose[f]ph Beuys] design was particularly inadequate: Two huge red gates, resembling guillotines, accompanied by a huge solar collector symbolizing a bowl of sacramental bread [Communion Bread]. Me as a jew I find that offensive, to say the least.
Joseph Sassoon Semah (artist):
He [Jose[f]ph Beuys] hardly ever mentioned the word Auschwitz, and when he did, it was often in unworthy contexts. He never really acknowledged his past. In this case, one must be suspicious of his theories.
Joseph Sassoon Semah (artist):
To me, he [Jose[f]ph Beuys] was never a Green, more of a Brown. His idea of a utopian state “Eurasia” presented in 1968 reintroduced the concept of blood and soil. He raved about Genghis Khan, one of the greatest killers in world history, and the chosen Celts and Teutons [GERMANIA].
2.
Entwürfe für Mahnmal Auschwitz
Auschwitz-Demonstration 1968
Sketch preparation for Monument of Auschwitz 1957,
glass vitrine with objects from 1956 - 1964
Collection Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt, Germany
At bottom, therefore, in the act of looking at an artwork, hidden significances are transmuted – and this in fact is the sum-total of the world [words] of Writing.
The stretched lay-out, in which the artwork merely serves to convey, and to reveal the ChaLaL חָלָל [Void /the Killed Soldier] of Writing: Hereafter, the visible retreating of our gaze at an artwork, must eventually transforms itself into a political action i.e. into a contemporary critical Writing.
Finally, I still can't find any critical response to the attempt of Museum Schloss Moyland/ Auschwitz and the Second World War in the work of Joseph Beuys to rewrite the history of Jos[f]eph Beuys.
24.2.1948
PS
Joseph Sassoon Semah 24.2.1986: Statement + Performance
Page 58 -61
How to Explain Hare Hunting to a Dead German Artist
.....As the Guest goes back into the past, reconsidering his memories one by one, he could still hear Jose[f]ph Beuys' dictum - "How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare" - in an indefinable language i.e. broken Hebrew. Later on, the Guest will explain that the dead Hare is a symbolic Jew, and that the masked Jose[f]ph Beuys continues to hide his secret strategy, namely, the desire to erase the memory of the Guest (The Jew).
And then at a certain moment, on 24.2.1986, the symbolic Dead Hare took his revenge - he started to Explain in proper Hebrew עברית Ivrit to a Dead German Artist about the symbolic ציד ארנבות Hare Hunting i.e. the hunting of Jews.
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