Surviving History – Portraits from Vilna Exhibition 5-16 May 2010

The Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre in association with the Rabbi Cyril Harris Community Centre was privileged to host this excellent, thought-provoking exhibition in Johannesburg. Some 1000 people viewed the exhibition which presents the life stories of ten individuals who survived the Holocaust in Lithuania, where ninety-five percent of the 240,000-strong pre-war Jewish population was annihilated.

The exhibition project is led by Shivaun Woolfson and Francis Tay of Living Imprint UK.

Drawing on an interdisciplinary range of media including: photography, video, text, archival documentation, visual biography and biographical objects, the exhibition seeks to express how history is lived; how world events are experienced from the inside.

Volunteer guides were trained to assist visiting groups. An exciting ancillary programme complemented this memorable exhibition.

Programme of Ancillary Events

Some comments from the Visitors’ Book Deeply moving and transformative –so important for more people to learn about and be able to grow from – politically, socially and spiritually – Thank you. A jewel box of an exhibition. My aunt, her children and her nieces were massacred at Rokiskis. Another aunt survived the death camps and her son survived with the partisans in the forest. He’s still alive – living in Jerusalem and will not talk of his experiences. The wonderful courage and strength of the survivors of Vilna will always be admired and revered……..A very moving, thought provoking well presented and mounted exhibition! Thank you so much for bringing it for us to learn from it! Brilliant exhibition. Amazing artwork and photography! Many thanks.

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