Science and Survival
An outdoor exhibition revealing the harrowing story of the Bredig family’s struggle to escape the Nazi regime.
On view October 24, 2022–April 25, 2023
Building Façade
Drawn from the Papers of Georg and Max Bredig, a recently digitized collection of correspondence belonging to the German father and son chemists of Jewish descent, Science and Survival revealed the harrowing story of the Bredig family’s struggle to escape the Nazi regime.
The outdoor exhibition featured large-scale reproductions of letters, postcards, and photographs installed on the façade of the Institute’s building at 315 Chestnut Street in Old City Philadelphia.
Watch a short film on the exhibition:
Some Holocaust stories may never be known. Trauma and loss prevent many from ever being told. Science and Survival helps give voice to these silent memories.
Personal and professional connections saved the Bredig family from the Third Reich. Max Bredig fled Germany in 1937. He convinced his father, Georg, to leave in 1939. Two years later, Max’s bribes and letters helped his sister, Marianne, and her husband, Viktor, flee a French internment camp. But other friends and colleagues such as Alfred and Eva Schnell did not survive.
The Science History Institute thanks the Walder Foundation for its generous support of the acquisition of the Papers of Georg and Max Bredig. Digitization and cataloging of this collection was made possible through the generosity of the Council on Library and Information Resources. Additional support comes from Aetna CVS Health Community Partnership Initiatives, Ari Kaplan, and Vidya Plainfield.