On April 16, 1945, the city of Groningen was liberated. The liberation brought joy and relief, evident in the celebrations that followed the arrival of the Allied forces. But behind the flags and festivities lay a region marked by deep scars—both physical and emotional. The reconstruction of Groningen took years, as did the healing of the personal and collective wounds left by the war.

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How do you celebrate liberation when you’ve lost nearly everything? When you don’t know whether your loved ones are still alive? And how do you cope with the trauma of persecution and murder? This exhibition explores how the province of Groningen has commemorated the war—and in particular the Shoah—over the past eighty years. We do this by sharing the personal stories of various Jewish residents of Groningen, and by showing how we have attempted to process the Shoah since 1945.