From 1933 to 1941, European Jews sought haven from the Nazis, reaching out to relatives, friends, even strangers. The exhibition “Against the Odds” tells the little-known story of the real-life Americans who answered that call. Despite strict immigration laws, these generous few, many immigrants themselves, overcame tremendous obstacles to help the refugees to safety.

The challenge began with conveying the immigration process into the United States leading up to World War II. The visitor needed to be pulled into the time period to experience the courage and sacrifice made by these families. A series of bureaucratic challenges needed to be done in a dramatic and exhibit-able way. Additionally, the artifacts on display needed to be integrated in a relevant and compelling fashion, despite the fact that they are almost all small and dim pieces of paper. And of course, it all had to be done on a very tight budget and timeframe.

We believe that museum artifacts are one thing museum exhibits offer that no other medium of communication can challenge. Therefore, it all starts there, with what is unique to a museum client. We added a wide range of motion and audio-visual pieces done in-house at C&G, all of which involve unexpected form-factors or novel visual approaches. And the exhibit also has a haunting sound score that can be heard throughout the galleries: a melodic score is not a common element of any exhibition.

The paper walls – there are no real walls – work to divide the exhibition into color-coded zones that tell the story in sequence, from the earliest days of warning, to the desperate crush as Nazi Germany overran the nations of Europe. The core of the story is always presented through artifacts. These are supplemented by the interactive experiences, score, AV installations and personal accounts.

We worked with curators, registrars, researchers, fabricators, specialists in conservation, specialist artifact installation experts, writers, photographic researchers, and museum directors throughout this project. A highlight was our opportunity to meet members of the families featured in the stories and learn first-hand from them what life was like in the time period we profiled. In our office, we made full-size paper prototypes of literally everything, from the paper wall system to every graphic type that was shown. We set up and tested every single multimedia piece, soundscape, and interactive device inside our office and allowed the client to experience it as well, in an intensive and iterative process.

As said by the Wall Street Journal,
“This wrenching and elegant exhibition tells its story, of both rescue and the impediments to rescue, almost as much through design (by C&G Partners) as content. It is constructed as a sort of maze with walls of paper. Exhibits are displayed not in conventional vitrines, but on slabs resembling tables (evoking endless visits to U.S. consulates) or (closed) doors. Color, too, is used effectively, with text panels in red, for instance, denoting high danger and those in black symbolizing the cutoff of avenues of escape once World War II began.”

By design, the real takeaway of the exhibit is how this history is applied to the present day. These issues are all still open today, with immigration policy as vital a topic as it was then – with outcomes no less urgent.