Original “Moon Landscape” Travels to Houston Holocaust Museum Yad Vashem representative to lecture on drawing that Ilan Ramon took to space

Tomorrow, Yehudit Shendar, Senior Arts Curator at Yad Vashem will give a guest lecture at the Holocaust Museum Houston at the premiere showing of “Moon Landscape” from Yad Vashem’s art collection, a replica of which the late Col. Ilan Ramon took with him on his shuttle mission. Shendar is touring major US cities with the original drawing. A press conference will be held with Shendar on May 14, at the American Society for Yad Vashem, 500 Fifth Avenue, 42nd floor, New York City, at 5:00 pm. The original painting will be on display.

Col. Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut, contacted Yad Vashem requesting a Holocaust related item to take with him on his launch into space on the shuttle Columbia, due to the significance of the Holocaust to him as a Jew and as an Israeli.

Yad Vashem chose “Moon Landscape”, created by Petr Ginz, a 14-year-old Jewish boy, during his incarceration in the Theresienstadt ghetto. The moon landscape depicted in Petr Ginz’s drawing attests to his aspiration to reach a place from where the earth, which threatened his life, could be seen from a secure range. Even more so, the picture reveals a young man who, in addition to his other talents, was both a researcher and scientist full of optimism that science precedes all and would ultimately bring a remedy for humanity. Ginz was killed in Auschwitz in 1944.

The lecture will take place on May 12 at the Holocaust Museum Houston.

Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes Remembrance Authority was created by the Israeli parliament in 1953. The campus is located on 45 acres of land, on the Mount of Remembrance, Jerusalem. It includes museums, monuments, sculptures, and other facilities. The archive and library building possesses the largest repository of Holocaust documentation, including a computerized database of the names of Jewish Holocaust victims stored in the Hall of Names. The world renowned International Institute for Holocaust Research puts out publications, holds international conferences and maintains contact with Holocaust researchers. Yad Vashem also operates the International School for Holocaust Studies, where every year tens of thousands of educators and pupils from Israel and abroad as well as IDF soldiers participate in its educational programs.