But what was it like for the deported cartoonist looking out a barrack window at an SS flag?
When a young girl imprisoned in a ghetto was advised by her father, “Draw what you see,” how did she respond?
Rendering Witness: Holocaust-Era Art as Testimony highlights work from the Museum of Jewish Heritage collection made during and immediately after the Holocaust in Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, and Poland. Much of this art was created in secret, with artists facing punishments as harsh as death if they were caught. Some of the artworks are tiny, reflecting their hidden origins. Other drawings were folded and hidden underneath a mattress or beneath one’s prisoner uniform.
To peer into history through the eyes of an artist, documenting what they saw and how they saw it, is the rarest of encounters. Rendering Witness offers a special opportunity to see art made under the most difficult circumstances – and to learn the stories of how it survived.
Zdjęcia w artykule: Andrzej Rudiak
Judah Landau w czasie wojny. Fot. Yad Vashem.
Pieśń Ma Nishtana w Hagadzie. Fot. Yad Vashem