“… when I express the desire to emigrate to Turkey, I believe that I could work there as an Orientalist.”

Lecture and Discussion with Elke-Vera Kotowski (Potsdam)
Hedwig Klein, the "war-essential translator" for an Arabic edition of "Mein Kampf"
Born in Antwerp in 1911, the daughter of a Hungarian merchant, she studied Islamic Studies, Semitics, and English Philology in Hamburg starting in 1932. Her scholarly expertise was valued, allowing her to earn a doctorate in 1937 as a Jew during the Nazi era, although her doctoral title was ultimately denied. As an outstanding linguist, she provided important textual components for the translation of "Mein Kampf" into Arabic; she hoped that this work would protect herself and her family from deportation. Several attempts to leave Germany failed. Hedwig Klein was deported and murdered in Auschwitz after July 11, 1942.
Dr. Elke-Vera Kotowski studied Political Science, Literary Studies, and Philosophy; she has been researching and teaching at the University of Potsdam since 1994. She is the Chief Curator of the Moses Mendelssohn Foundation and the Executive Director of the Moses Mendelssohn Institute.
Accompanying program for the exhibition "The Orientals. Jewish Researchers and Adventurers in Search of the Own in the Foreign," November 16, 2025, to October 4, 2026
Admission: €9 (reduced €6)
No reservation required