Is it pure Evil?

In March 2002, a very challenging exhibit opened at the Jewish Museum in New York. It was based on the Holocaust but in a very non-traditional way. Mirroring Evil sought to change the traditional way that art portrayed and memorialized the holocaust. Instead, Mirroring Evil focused on the Nazis in a glamorizing and romantic light. While this approach was challenging, many community groups protested the exhibition as disrespectful to survivors. However, artist and exhibitors expressed that survivors are not the only authentic voice of the holocaust. There were multiple groups involved during the holocaust but not all perspectives mirror that of the victims. Greenberg notes that “daring to suggest that all people image or imagine the Holocaust as a narrative of victimhood or a forum for mourning was deemed unacceptable” ( p. 108, Greenberg). This view was criticized heavily and made the exhibit a social pariah.
Additionally, the exhibit opened six months after 9-11 during a resurgence of traumatization. Greenberg felt that this timing added to public anger over the exhibit especially after extensive discussion of evil and mass murder that surrounded the World Trade Center attacks. Then, with the opening of the exhibit, it was “about evil men who dehumanize and commit mass murder” (Greenberg, p. 111). This may have been too much for a sensitive public to have been able to understand and accept the differences in perspectives.