BERLIN – Two years after the brutal Hamas assault on Israel's Nova Music Festival, an immersive exhibition has opened its doors in Berlin, offering a poignant and unvarnished reflection on the October 7, 2023, tragedy. Housed within the historic Tempelhof Airport, "The Nova Music Festival Exhibition: October 7th, 06:29 AM — The Moment Music Stood Still" aims to transport visitors to the scene of the massacre, ensuring that the victims are remembered and the horror of the attack is not forgotten. This European debut of the exhibition, which has previously toured several international cities, serves as a stark memorial and a critical educational tool against historical revisionism and denial.
The exhibition, unveiled on October 7, 2025, precisely two years after the devastating events, will run for approximately six weeks, transforming a section of Tempelhof into a harrowing recreation of the festival grounds. Its purpose is to bear witness to the tragic events, inspire resilience, and educate the public, focusing exclusively on the individuals impacted at the Nova festival rather than providing a broad overview of the wider conflict. Visitors encounter a meticulously reconstructed environment featuring authentic objects collected directly from the original site near Kibbutz Re'im. Burned-out cars, bullet-riddled portable toilets, abandoned tents, and scattered personal belongings evoke the chaos and violence that abruptly ended a night of celebration. Multimedia installations and survivor testimonies play a crucial role, immersing attendees in the experience. Videos filmed by victims as they hid, alongside footage captured by the perpetrators, provide an unsparing account of the events. Exhibition creator and curator Reut Feingold explained that visitors are encouraged to engage with the displays, touching and even smelling items, or picking up cell phones that play victim videos, to foster a deeper, sensory understanding of the tragedy.
The exhibition arrives in Berlin as the city continues to grapple with the aftermath of October 7, a date that marked a profound historical rupture with far-reaching impacts on Jewish communities worldwide, including in Germany. Berlin's Governing Mayor Kai Wegner has assumed patronage of the project, with public funding supporting its presentation. Mayor Wegner emphasized the exhibition as an invitation for everyone to "take a closer look and realize that the perpetrators were solely concerned with cruel violence against innocent people." He underscored the particular significance of hosting such an exhibition in Berlin, a city renowned for its vibrant music and cultural scene. Cultural State Minister Wolfram Weimer echoed these sentiments, describing the Hamas attack as a brutal massacre and an assault on the very idea of freedom, asserting that its presentation in Berlin sends a "strong signal: We do not forget the victims." The exhibition is thus positioned not merely as a remembrance of a past event but as a contemporary statement against terror and a testament to shared values of freedom and human dignity.
The Nova Music Festival, an open-air trance event known as the Supernova Sukkot Gathering, drew approximately 3,000 attendees, along with hundreds of staff and security personnel, to the Israeli desert near Kibbutz Re'im. What began as a celebration of peace and love transformed into the deadliest attack on a music event in history. On the morning of October 7, 2023, at approximately 6:29 a.m., rockets signaled the beginning of a coordinated assault by Hamas militants. Armed terrorists swarmed the festival grounds, indiscriminately opening fire on fleeing festival-goers. The ensuing massacre resulted in the deaths of 378 individuals, including 344 civilians and 34 security personnel, with hundreds more injured. The perpetrators also abducted 44 people from the festival, taking them hostage into the Gaza Strip. Reports of sexual and gender-based violence emerged from the scene, further illustrating the brutality of the assault. An IDF investigation later indicated that Hamas likely stumbled upon the festival by chance during their broader offensive, redirecting their forces to target the unsuspecting crowd.
Beyond the graphic evidence of destruction, the exhibition diligently works to humanize the statistics, presenting text panels and portraits that focus on the lives of individual victims. A notable example is the German tattoo artist Shani Louk, whose tragic death became a widely circulated image, symbolizing the barbarity of the attack. This emphasis on personal narratives aims to prevent the victims from becoming mere numbers, fostering empathy and a deeper understanding of the human cost of terrorism. The exhibition's global tour, which included cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Buenos Aires, has drawn more than 500,000 visitors, bringing together politicians, public figures, educators, and school communities to honor the victims. The organizers have expressed the exhibition's philosophy, "We Will Dance Again," as a message of resilience and hope, asserting that the spirit of community and celebration cannot be extinguished by terror. However, the exhibition's immersive approach has also sparked discussions regarding the aestheticization of violence and the instrumentalization of trauma, prompting reflection on how such painful histories are presented and remembered. Security concerns have been raised by organizers, anticipating potential protests from pro-Palestinian groups, similar to those experienced during its New York run. This underscores the sensitive and often contested nature of memorializing the October 7 attacks amidst ongoing geopolitical tensions.
The Nova Music Festival Exhibition in Berlin stands as a powerful testament to the victims of the October 7, 2023, terror attack. Through its vivid and immersive reconstruction of the festival grounds, it compels visitors to confront the grim realities of that day, urging remembrance, education, and collective reflection. As the world continues to grapple with the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the exhibition offers a focused look at an act of unprovoked violence, reminding audiences of the profound human cost of terrorism and reaffirming the importance of standing against such atrocities. The presentation in Berlin, a city with its own complex history of remembrance, sends a clear message that the stories of October 7 will not be forgotten, and that the pursuit of peace and human dignity remains paramount.
