Rendering Witness. Virtual Tour.
Museum of Jewish Herigate
Though the Museum building is temporarily closed, the exhibition of the Museum of Jewish Heritage Rendering Witness: Holocaust-Era Art as Testimony is available online.
Artwork from the exhibition, in the order it’s displayed at the Museum, is presented in a slideshow online. A playlist of videos that give behind-the-scenes insight into the exhibition is available here.
Just as every Holocaust survivor’s testimony is unique, so too is art produced by Jews and other victims of the Nazis during the Holocaust. It is a miracle that this art survived. Each artwork in this exhibition reasserts the artist’s humanity and individuality, qualities too often obscured by iconic Holocaust photographs that were taken by the Nazis or their collaborators.
These artists documented the Holocaust as it unfolded around them, providing a unique personal layer to the visual culture of World War II. Some of the art depicts iconic scenes of the Holocaust, such as ghetto topographies and deportations, while other works are more introspective. The art in this exhibition is not accompanied by historical artifacts produced by the Nazis and their collaborators. While it is important to document perpetrator-made artifacts and images, the art in this exhibition stands alone.
Museums and memorials rely on photographic evidence; some survivors produce art reflecting their experiences; and various films and television productions have recreated scenes of World War II.