An exhibition of photographs entitled "Russians Jews Germans" was opened on 5 March 2013 in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The photographs follow the lives of Jews who resettled to Germany from Soviet successor states in 1992 and are on loan from the Jewish Museum in Berlin.

The black and white pictures of photographer Michael Kerstgens show how the life of the German Jewish community changed as a result of immigration caused by the social changes in Eastern Europe. Curator from the Berlin Jewish Museum Theresia Ziehe selected forty images from the Museum's very successful 2012 exhibition.
„We, Hungarians can very much identify ourselves with the struggle for the survival and self-realization of minority communities” – emphasised Minister of State Zsolt Németh at the opening ceremony. Everybody has the right to live „without being threatened by the state, without forced assimilation”, to live in peace and security guaranteed by the state – he pointed out.

Germany is a good example that this is possible: Germany supports the preservation of the identity of Russian-born Jewish communities, he added
He stressed that however difficult it may have been for Jews arriving from the Soviet member states to find a home in the last twenty years, immigrants succeeded in integrating into German society while retaining, moreover strengthening their „especially complex” identity. The title of the exhibition, „Russians Jewish Germans”, without commas or dashes, also refers to this – he explained.
Just as the post-war German generations had to, we Hungarians must also face the shameful chapters of our past so that the hatred can never again lead to inhumane tragedies – the Minister of State said.
There were only eight small Jewish communities in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in the eighties – recalled German Minister of State of the Foreign Office Cornelia Pieper. Although the GDR supported these communities financially, it didn’t take responsibility for Holocaust crimes and thought the culprits lived only in West Germany – she reminded those present.

This distancing from the past changed little before the last days of the GDR's dictatorship, when Jewish citizens were expected to improve relations with the United States because of the GDR's collapsing economy. As a result, 2,600 Soviet Jews arrived to Germany during the last days of the GDR, after the government had allowed the reception of Soviet-born Jewish citizens in July 1990.

The exhibition may be visited from 2 May 2013 to 23 July in the Budapest History Museum.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs)