03 April 2016
Tomorrow, 4 April 2016, the exhibition, "Art from the Holocaust: 100 Works from the Yad Vashem Collection," on display at Berlin's German Historical Museum since January 26, will close to the public. The exhibition, initiated by the national daily BILD, and co-curated by the Bonn-based Foundation for Art and Culture and has been visited by close to 50,000 people – making it one of the museum's most successful temporary exhibitions ever. Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev said:
"It is clear that the Holocaust in general, and the idea of the indestructible human spirit in particular, has captured the interest of the next generations. The artworks selected for this unique exhibition bring a personal perspective to the horrors of the Shoah, and the attention it has engendered illustrates the abiding commitment to keep the memory alive."
Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, has been gathering art, artifacts and archival documentation from the period of the Holocaust for preservation, safeguarding and commemoration since its inception in 1953. The artworks on display feature the creations of 50 artists, and tell the story of the indomitable human spirit; despite the individual hardships and horrors they endured at the hands of the Nazi Germans, the Jewish artists were determined to bear testimony to the Holocaust.
"To think that the same Jewish artists that were once persecuted are now, over 70 years later, being honored, and their art celebrated in Berlin, the very place where they and their art were once sentenced to death and annihilation, bears special significance for our generation. Despite their despair, these Jewish artists hoped that even if they did not survive, at least their works would remain to tell the world about the atrocities they experienced. The fact that this exhibition was also presented in Hebrew adds further symbolic meaning to the event."
Eliad Moreh Rosenberg, Director of Yad Vashem's Art Department and Co-curator of the exhibition
For further information on the exhibition and artists, and for a selection of the artwork displayed, please visit our website.
