In the first of three virtual programs making up the 21st Annual Fanya Gottesfeld Heller Conference for Educators, Eliad Moreh-Rosenberg, Curator and Director of the Art Department in Yad Vashem’s Museums Division, will introduce teachers to the scope of art produced during the Holocaust. What kinds of art and where was art produced? How was it possible? Why were people driven to create art? What can students learn from encountering art from the Holocaust? Ms. Moreh-Rosenberg will illustrate her talk with images that teachers may easily access for work with their students.
About the 21st Annual Fanya Gottesfeld Heller Conference for Educators
Just as every Holocaust survivor’s testimony is unique, so too is art produced during the Holocaust. It is a miracle that any artwork survived. Artwork asserts the artist’s humanity and individuality, qualities too often overshadowed by photographs taken by the Nazis or their collaborators. Artists documented the Holocaust as it unfolded around them, trying to leave documentation for future generations. When the war ended, many survivor artists continued to produce art relating to their experiences.
In the decades since, among children and grandchildren of survivors were also artists who explored their relationship to their survivor relatives and the Holocaust through art. With the development of computer capabilities, video, and the growing popularity of graphic novels, new arenas for artistic expression opened up. How is this art being shared with the public, with students, within Holocaust survivor families?
How does art inform our students’ understanding of the Holocaust? Is there a legacy of trauma that sets these artworks apart from others?
Join us as we explore these issues in the 21st Annual Fanya Gottesfeld Heller Conference for Educators taking place on Sundays 1:00 – 2:30 PM Eastern Standard Time on December 6, 13, and 20.
This program is made possible through the generous sponsorship of the family of Mrs. Fanya Gottesfeld Heller, z”l.