The Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre

Victimisation of Jewish Women Survivors by their Soviet Liberators
2023-03-26 20:00 - 21:30 UTC | Online
Dr. Eglitis’s lecture discusses the occurrence of sexual violence during the liberation, specifically the assaults carried out by Soviet Army liberators against Jewish female survivors. Testimonies and memoirs reveal that some Soviet troops perceived surviving Nazi captivity as evidence of complicity, which fueled a desire for revenge, leading soldiers to seek payment for freedom from women survivors. Evidence from these sources also highlights ongoing brutality against survivors who sought to return home to the USSR, including Soviet filtration camps.
This programme is in collaboration with Ghetto Fighters House, Remember the Women Institute, Women in the Holocaust – International Study Centre (MORESHET), Wagner College Holocaust Centre, Classrooms Without Borders, Rabin Chair Forum Washington University, and the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre.
Click here to register.

Achieving Legal Accountability for WWII Nazi Crimes
2023-03-23 21:00 - 22:30 | Online
“The Holocaust as an Interdisciplinary Tapestry” is an 8-part series that will engage with scholars and experts who grapple with themes related to Holocaust studies. The series will explore the multifaceted discipline of Holocaust Studies through different lenses. Our experts will challenge us to understand the causes, impacts, and legacies of the Holocaust.
Eli M. Rosenbaum, will be talking about some of his experiences prosecuting Nazis in the US. He will explore some of the challenges with which the US Department of Justice has had to deal, such as finding documents, witnesses, and more; years and decades after the crimes were committed, in another country and continent.
Eli M. Rosenbaum is the longest serving investigator and prosecutor of Nazi war criminals and other human rights violators in world history. Since 2010, he has served as Director of Human Rights Enforcement Strategy and Policy in the U.S. Department of Justice Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section (HRSP).
In June 2022, he was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to serve concurrently as Counselor for War Crimes Accountability, tasked with coordinating efforts across the Justice Department and with other federal agencies and authorities abroad to hold accountable persons responsible for war crimes and other atrocities committed in Ukraine in the wake of Russia’s unprovoked invasion. Those efforts are spearheaded by DOJ’s newly created War Crimes Accountability Team, which he heads and which draws on the extensive expertise of HRSP staff, supplemented by contributions of professionals in other Justice Department components. A veteran 37-year Justice Department prosecutor, Rosenbaum served initially as a trial attorney in the Criminal Division’s Office of Special Investigations (OSI), eventually serving as OSI’s Director from 1995 to 2010, when OSI was merged into the newly created HRSP. OSI was responsible for identifying, investigating, and taking legal action against perpetrators of World War II-era Nazi crimes of persecution, and its mission was later expanded to include persons complicit in human rights crimes committed in post-WWII conflicts. He is a graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned undergraduate and MBA degrees, and Harvard Law School. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award and the “Heroes in Blue” award of the Anti-Defamation League.
Dr. Tamir Hod will explore the Israel Police Unit for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes – Holocaust Survivors’ Legal Retribution. In 1958, the Central Office of Judicial Administration for the investigation of Nazi crimes was established in Germany. Documenting the actions of Nazi criminals in preparation for their trial brought the bureau’s representatives to contact the Israeli Police in order to help them gather evidence from Holocaust survivors residing in the country. Consequently, a police unit was needed to deal with the increasing number of inquiries from Germany. For that purpose, the unit for the investigation of Nazi crimes was established in the Israeli Police. Two years later, Adolf Eichmann was captured and brought to Israel. This event deeply affected the sentiments of Israeli society toward the Holocaust. One of the impacts was Holocaust survivors who contacted the unit requesting to provide their testimonies.
Many of the appeals included names of Nazi criminals who could potentially be located and prosecuted. The special police unit comprised almost completely of Holocaust survivors. The survivors played an important role in collecting and documenting the historical records available to us today. Many of the unit members had lost their families in the Holocaust. It may be conjectured that they sought vengeance upon those who committed the crimes. Nonetheless, if indeed they had such feelings, they were translated into long hours of detailed legal work that would lead to proper legal procedures through which it would be possible to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Dr. Tamir Hod is a historian in the field of World War II and the Holocaust, as well as the impact of Holocaust remembrance on Israeli society. The topic of his doctoral thesis was the Demjanjuk trial case in Israel, under the guidance of Prof. Hanna Yablonka. Dr. Hod researched the role the Ukrainian collaborators played in the Treblinka extermination camp. These days, Tamir is working on a book about the Nazi Crimes Investigations Unit in the Israeli Police. The unit, which was founded in 1960, was mainly composed of Holocaust survivors and contributed greatly to various trials in different places around the world against Nazi criminals and their collaborators. Dr. Tamir Hod teaches at Tel Hai Academic College and Western Galilee Academic College.
This programme is in partnership with Classrooms Without Borders, Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, the Ghetto Fighters’ House, Generations of the Shoah, and Liberation75.
Click here to register.

An evening with Simon Sebag Montefiore
2023-03-22 19:00 - 21:00 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
Jonathan Ball Publishers and The Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre invite you to an evening with Simon Sebag Montefiore. The acclaimed historian and bestselling author of Stalin: The Court Of The Red Tsar, Jerusalem: The Biography, Young Stalin and The Romanovs, will be in conversation with author and journalist, Terry Shakinovsky, to discuss his latest book The World: A Family History. The story of humanity from prehistory to the present day, told through the one thing all humans have in common: family.
Simon Sebag Montefiore is a bestselling writer whose books have been published in forty-eight languages and who has won prizes for both his history and novels. He is the author of the acclaimed Moscow Trilogy of novels Sashenka, Red Sky at Noon, and One Night in Winter. One Night in Winter won the Political Novel of the Year Prize (UK) and was longlisted for the Orwell Prize (UK). Catherine the Great and Potemkin was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson, Duff Cooper, and Marsh Biography Prizes. Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar won the History Book of the Year Prize at the British Book Awards. Young Stalin won the Costa Biography Award (UK), the LA Times Book Prize for Biography (US), Le Grand Prix de la Biographie Politique (France) and the Kreisky Prize for Political Literature (Austria). Jerusalem: The Biography was number one non-fiction Sunday Times bestseller and a global bestseller and won The Book of the Year Prize from the Jewish Book Council (US). It also won the Wen Jin Prize in China awarded by the National Library of China, and to date, the book has sold almost 600,000 copies in Chinese. The Romanovs, 1613-1918 has been a bestseller all over the world including being a New York Times top ten bestseller, and won Lupicaia del Terriccio Literature Prize (Italy). His latest book is The World: a Family History.
He has written and presented five BBC TV series on Jerusalem, Rome, Istanbul (‘Byzantium: a tale of three cities’), Spain (‘Blood and Gold’) and Vienna. He read history at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge University, where he received his Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD). A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Visiting Professor of Humanities at the University of Buckingham, he lives in London. Dr Montefiore regularly lectures around the world on history, Russia and the Middle East, and on subjects such as leadership and revolution.
RSVP essential to dowi@jhbholocaust.co.za

Guided Tour of Exhibition "Seeing Auschwitz"
2023-03-21 11:00 - 12:30 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
Book your free guided tour with dowi@jhbholocaust.co.za or by calling 011 640 3100 to book your spot!
This 90-minute guided tour is free of charge.

Guided Tour of "Seeing Auschwitz" Exhibition
2023-03-15 14:00 - 15:30 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa

82nd Commemoration of the Jewish Deportation to Mauritius
2023-03-14 19:00 - 21:00 | Online
The Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre in partnership with the Beau Bassin Jewish Detainees Memorial & Information Centre, the Avraham Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Ghetto Fighters House invite you to join us online for the 82nd Commemoration of the deportation of Jews to Mauritius.
The official programme includes a keynote address delivered by Ghetto Fighters House Archive Manager, Anat Bratman-Elhalel on the Mauritius Exile Collection, a short testimony by Shlomo Handel, and a candle lighting ceremony.
Click here to register.

Betrayed: Child Sex Abuse and the Holocaust
2023-03-12 20:00 - 22:00 | Online
Guest Speaker: Dr. Beverley Chalmers
Although rarely mentioned, sexual assault of children during the Holocaust occurred far more often than we would like to acknowledge. Children were sexually abused in ghettos, camps, on transit trains, while in hiding, and even when sent to safety outside Europe. They were betrayed by the Nazis, their rescuers, their peers, by those who discounted their experiences after the war, and by Holocaust scholars who do not acknowledge these events and prefer to keep this a closely guarded secret. The challenges involved in studying child sex abuse during the Holocaust will be addressed. Issues relating to maintaining confidentiality, and the value of testimony if it is not made available for study, will be considered. Seeking methods that allow researchers to access and report on such sensitive testimonies remains an essential task if we are to acknowledge the full extent of women’s and children’s lives and honour their experiences.
This programme is in partnership with the Remember the Women Institute, Women in the Holocaust – International Study Center (MORESHET), Wagner College Holocaust Center, Classrooms Without Borders, Rabin Chair Forum Washington University, and the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre.
Click here to register.

The JHGC Book Club
2023-03-03 10:00 - 12:00 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
RSVP to dowi@jhbholocaust.co.za

The Symbolism of Auschwitz with Paweł Sawicki
2023-03-02 19:00 - 21:00 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
Auschwitz is not only a Memorial Site. It is also a significant element of our civilisation. The word Auschwitz has become a distinctive symbol of terror, genocide and the Shoah. It became a synonym for the greatest fall of humanity’s value system. The presentation will delve into the complex history of the camp and its contemporary role as a symbol of the crimes committed during the war. It will examine the ongoing efforts of the Memorial created in 1947 to preserve the site as a historical monument and educate future generations about the dangers of hateful ideologies and the need for moral responsibility. In addition to showing the most important element of the mission of the Memorial, the presentation will also discuss the challenges of social media and new technologies in the work of such a sensitive and important site.
Paweł Sawicki is a press officer and an educator at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum Memorial. He is responsible for the Memorial’s social media, which is followed by over 2 million people on different platforms. He is also the editor-in-chief of the monthly online magazine Memoria & coordinator of the “Auschwitz: Not Long Ago, Not Far Away” exhibition project on behalf of the Museum. Sawicki is the co-host of the “On Auschwitz” podcast, and creator of the photo album “Auschwitz-Birkenau. The place where you are standing…” that compares 1944 images from Auschwitz II-Birkenau with the authentic site of the Memorial today. He is a photographer and a former radio journalist, having worked for several years on Polish Radio 2 and created a documentary feature series “Auschwitz – between crime and sanctity” that used the audio testimonies from the Auschwitz Memorial Archives.
Booking essential to dowi@jhbholocaust.co.za

Seeing Auschwitz Walkabout with Paweł Sawicki
2023-03-02 17:30 - 19:00 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
Paweł Sawicki is a press officer and an educator at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum Memorial. He is responsible for the Memorial’s social media, which is followed by over 2 million people on different platforms. He is also the editor-in-chief of the monthly online magazine Memoria & coordinator of the “Auschwitz: Not Long Ago, Not Far Away” exhibition project on behalf of the Museum. Sawicki is the co-host of the “On Auschwitz” podcast, and creator of the photo album “Auschwitz-Birkenau. The place where you are standing…” that compares 1944 images from Auschwitz II-Birkenau with the authentic site of the Memorial today. He is a photographer and a former radio journalist, having worked for several years on Polish Radio 2 and created a documentary feature series “Auschwitz – between crime and sanctity” that used the audio testimonies from the Auschwitz Memorial Archives.
Booking essential to dowi@jhbholocaust.co.za

Closed Workshop: Teaching and Learning about Genocide
2023-03-01 14:00 - 17:00 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
The complexity of history and memories of Auschwitz
When we talk about Auschwitz today as a memorial site we need to remember that this is a place where many different memories coexist. This is the result of a very complex history of the German Nazi camp. Initially the prisoners and victims of the camp were Poles. Among its prisoners were also Jews, Roma, Soviet POWs and prisoners of other nationalities and minorities. From 1942 the camp became one of the places of the extermination of European Jews and Roma People. Most of the Jews deported to Auschwitz were murdered in gas chambers immediately after arrival. The presentation will discuss different aspects of Auschwitz as a site important to many different groups of people, as well as present new research done by the historians of the Museum about crucial aspects of development of the camp and its two functions: concentration camp and an extermination centre.
When we talk about Auschwitz today as a memorial site we need to remember that this is a place where many different memories coexist. This is the result of a very complex history of the German Nazi camp. The presentation will discuss different aspects of Auschwitz as a site important to many different groups of people, as well as present new research done by the historians of the Museum about crucial aspects of development of the camp and its two functions: concentration camp and an extermination centre.
Pawel Sawicki
Paweł Sawicki, a press officer & educator at the Auschwitz Memorial. He is responsible for the social media activity of the Memorial that is followed on different platforms by over 2 million people. The editor-in-chief of the monthly online magazine Memoria & coordinator of the “Auschwitz. Not far away. Not long ago” exhibition project on behalf of the Museum. Co-author of the “On Auschwitz” podcast & author of the photo album “Auschwitz-Birkenau. The place where you are standing…” that compares 1944 images from Auschwitz II-Birkenau with the authentic site of the Memorial today. A photographer and a former radio journalist. For several years in Polish Radio 2 he authored a documentary feature series “Auschwitz – between crime and sanctity” that used the audio testimonies from the Auschwitz Memorial Archives.
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Teaching about Genocide and Propaganda: A Conversation on Pedagogical Tools and Strategies
This interactive workshop will draw upon primary sources and scientific research that demonstrates how propaganda during war and conflict is used to create a culture of fear and paranoia that can escalate to mass violence. During the workshop we will analyse how propaganda’s clear messages promise clarity, relevance, and benefits, while dehumanising the target population. Participants will have the opportunity to both learn the material and explore a variety of pedagogical tools including hands-on and application-centred classroom activities that keep students engaged and impacted with the content. Participants will walk away with a clear understanding of how to share the knowledge learned, equipped with pedagogical tools and strategies to teach students about the role of propaganda in genocide.
Nicole Fox
Nicole Fox, Ph.D., research centres on how racial and ethnic contention impacts communities, including how remembrances of adversity shape social change, collective memory and present-day social movements. She is a professor of criminal justice at California State University Sacramento where she teaches about atrocity crimes, mass incarceration, global criminology and law. Her 2021 book, After Genocide: Memory and Reconciliation in Genocide, focuses on how memorials to past atrocity shape healing, community development and reconciliation for survivors of genocide and genocidal rape. Her most recent project examines bystander intervention, with an emphasis on individuals who conducted acts of rescue during times of social unrest and political violence. Her scholarship has been published in Social Problems, Signs, Social Forces, Deviant Behavior, the Journal for Scientific Study of Religion, Sociological Forum, Societies without borders, among others. Her work has generously been supported by the Harry Frank Guggenheim Grant, the National Science Foundation, Andrew Mellon Foundation, University of New Hampshire’s Prevention Innovation Research Center, Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Society for the Study of Social Problems and the American Sociological Society’s Fund for the Advancement of the Discipline and others. She also serves on the United Nations Economic and Social Council and contributes to the UN Commission for the Status of Women held annually at the UN headquarters.

After Genocide: Memory and Reconciliation in Rwanda with Dr Nicole Fox
2023-02-28 19:00 - 20:30 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
In the wake of unthinkable atrocities, it is reasonable to ask how any population can move on from the experience of genocide. Simply remembering the past can, in the shadow of mass death, be re-traumatising. So how can such momentous events be memorialised in a way that is productive and even healing for survivors? Nicole Fox’s 2021 book After Genocide: Memory and Reconciliation in Rwanda (University of Wisconsin Press) investigates such questions through extensive interviews with survivors decades after mass violence has ended. After Genocide reveals the relationship survivors have to memorial spaces and uncovers those voices silenced by the dominant narrative—arguing that the erasure of such stories is an act of violence itself.
Nicole Fox, Ph.D., research centres on how racial and ethnic contention impacts communities, including how remembrances of adversity shape social change, collective memory and present-day social movements. She is a professor of criminal justice at California State University Sacramento where she teaches about atrocity crimes, mass incarceration, global criminology and law. Her 2021 book, After Genocide: Memory and Reconciliation in Genocide, focuses on how memorials to past atrocity shape healing, community development and reconciliation for survivors of genocide and genocidal rape. Her most recent project examines bystander intervention, with an emphasis on individuals who conducted acts of rescue during times of social unrest and political violence. Her scholarship has been published in Social Problems, Signs, Social Forces, Deviant Behavior, the Journal for Scientific Study of Religion, Sociological Forum, Societies without borders, among others. Her work has generously been supported by the Harry Frank Guggenheim Grant, the National Science Foundation, Andrew Mellon Foundation, University of New Hampshire’s Prevention Innovation Research Center, Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Society for the Study of Social Problems and the American Sociological Society’s Fund for the Advancement of the Discipline and others. She also serves on the United Nations Economic and Social Council and contributes to the UN Commission for the Status of Women held annually at the UN headquarters.
Booking essential to dowi@jhbholocaust.co.za

JHGC Open Day
2023-02-26 14:00 - 16:00 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa

The Holocaust as an Interdisciplinary Tapestry
2023-02-23 21:00 - 22:30 | Online
The 1st session will feature Dr. Robert Krell Discussion on Psychiatry and the Holocaust
Classrooms Without Borders, in coordination with Tali Nates, Founder and Director of the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, Madene Shachar, Director, “Talking Memory” online lecture series & International Educational Programs the Ghetto Fighters’ House, Esther Toporek Finder, member of the GSI Coordinating Council, Generations of the Shoah and in partnership with Liberation75 is pleased to embark on this new innovative series “The Holocaust as an Interdisciplinary Tapestry”.
This 8-part series will engage with scholars and experts who grapple with themes related to Holocaust studies. The series will explore the multifaceted discipline of Holocaust Studies through different lenses. Our experts will challenge us to understand the causes, impacts, and legacies of the Holocaust.
In the first session, Dr. Robert Krell will discuss Psychiatry and the Holocaust, moderated by Tali Nates.
Dr. Robert Krell was born in Holland and survived the Holocaust in hiding. The Krell family moved to Vancouver, Canada where he obtained an MD from the University of British Columbia and eventually became professor of psychiatry. Dr. Krell was Director of Child Psychiatry and also treated Holocaust survivors and their families as well as Dutch survivors of Japanese concentration camps. He has authored and co-edited ten books, twenty-one book chapters and over fifty journal articles. His memoir Sounds from Silence: Reflections of a Child Holocaust Survivor, Psychiatrist and Teacher was published in 2021.
Click here to register.

Birth, Sex and Abuse: Women’s Voices under Nazi Rule
2023-02-19 21:00 - 22:30 | Online
Dr. Beverley Chalmers will present on how the Nazis abused reproduction and sexuality to create an ideological ‘Master Race.’ They prohibited those deemed ‘Life unworthy of life’ from having sex or reproducing while promoting these among those deemed ‘worthy of life.’ Holocaust literature gives exhaustive attention to ‘direct’ means of exterminating Jews, by using gas chambers, torture, starvation, disease, and intolerable conditions in ghettos and camps, and by the Einsatzgruppen. Manipulating reproduction and sexuality – as a less ‘direct,’ but also abusive, method of genocide of Jews, or its antithesis – geno-coercion among ‘Aryans,’- has not yet received the same attention, and will be examined in this presentation.
This programme is in partnership with the Remember the Women Institute, Women in the Holocaust – International Study Center (MORESHET), Wagner College Holocaust Center, Classrooms Without Borders, Rabin Chair Forum Washington University, and the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre.
Click here to register.

Guided tour of the exhibition "Seeing Auschwitz"
2023-02-14 11:00 - 12:30 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
You are invited to join the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre for a unique opportunity to explore the world acclaimed exhibition: SEEING AUSCHWITZ
Visit the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre for a guided tour of rare images captured by perpetrators, victims, and liberators present at Auschwitz. Seeing Auschwitz invites us to critically reflect on the images, exploring what they really tell us, not just about a specific place and time but also about the perpetrators, the people photographed, and even ourselves as viewers.
The exhibition, created by Musealia in partnership with the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, in collaboration with the UN and UNESCO, and presented in Johannesburg by the JHGC, will be open for a limited time only until end of March 2023.
Book your free guided tour with dowi@jhbholocaust.co.za or by calling 011 640 3100 to book your spot!
This 90 minute guided tour is free of charge.

What do we remember? How do we remember? Who remembers?
2023-02-09 20:00 - 22:00 | Online
2022 marks the 80th anniversary of “Aktion Reinhard” – the German plan to murder all the Jews of Poland living in the General Government. To mark this anniversary, the Galicia Jewish Museum, the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre and the Ghetto Fighters House invite you to a programme titled, 80 Years After “Aktion Reinhard”: The Industrial Killing of European Jewry – a series of four online lectures given by some of the most recognised scholars in this field, each one focusing on a different aspect of the Holocaust and related to this key event.
During the last event we will discuss issues related to memory. What Do We Remember? How Do We Remember? Who Remembers? Prof. James Young will describe the process of commemoration at the Concentration and Death Camps itself. Prof Omer Bartov will look at the processes of transmission of the memory of the Holocaust in Israel. Finally, an activist Dariusz Poplela will show how small communities and nongovernmental organisations work together to bring back the memory of the Holocaust in the context of rural Poland today.
The discussion will be moderated by Dr. Edyta Gawron of the Jagiellonian University.
Registration essential, click here.

What we’ve lost: On the History and Presence of Queer Lives
2023-02-09 17:00 - 19:00 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
The Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, in collaboration with GALA Queer Archive (GALA), invite you to a special lecture by Dr Mirjam Zadoff on What we’ve lost: On the History and Presence of Queer Lives.
Dr Zadoff, the director of Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism will discuss the successful exhibition “TO BE SEEN. Queer lives 1900–1950″ currently showing at the Documentation Centre. The talk will look at lessons learnt, especially in terms of education, creating safe spaces, engaging past diversity, and discussions on terminology, amongst other issues. The lecture will be opened by Keval Harie, director of GALA Queer Archive.
“TO BE SEEN. Queer lives 1900–1950” examines how thousands of homosexual men were persecuted, sent to concentration camps and murdered in Nazi Germany. Their stories have remained untold for a long time, as discriminating policies continued to be in place in postwar Germany. The exhibition does not only focus on the persecution of LGBTIQ*, but sheds light on the visibility of queerness during the Weimar republic and unveils a fascinating and largely forgotten history of diversity and acceptance.
Registration is essential to dowi@jhbholocaust.co.za
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Dr Mirjam Zadoff is director of the Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism. Previously she has held the Alvin H. Rosenfeld Chair in History and Jewish Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington. She has published broadly in the field of Jewish and Holocaust Studies – among her recent publications are: Werner Scholem. A German Life (2017), Next Year in Marienbad. The Lost Worlds of Jewish Spa Culture (2012), and the edited volume Four Years After. Ethnonationalism, Antisemitism, and Racism in Trump’s America, ed. together with Noam Zadoff, Stefanie Schüler-Springorum and Heike Paul (2020).

Film: Questo ê un Uomo (This is a Man)
2023-02-05 15:00 - 17:00 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
In honour of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, The Italian Cultural Institute of Pretoria, the Embassy of Italy in Pretoria, the Consulate General of Italy in Johannesburg, and the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre invite you to join us for a screening of the acclaimed film, Questo ê un Uomo (This Is a Man, 2021),with a candle lighting ceremony, and an opening address by H.E. Ambassador Paolo Cuculi.
Questo ê un Uomo (This Is a Man, 2021), directed by Marco Turco, is a docu-fiction that remembers the life of Primo Levi, an Italian chemist, partisan, writer, and Holocaust survivor, who recounted the horror of the concentration camps and the tragedy of the Shoah.
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RSVP to dowi@jhbholocaust.co.za

Sexual Violence against Jewish Women during the Holocaust: Challenges and Reflections
2023-01-29 21:00 - 22:30 | Online
In this series, we have invited four leading experts who will discuss one of the most difficult and less-researched topics: sexual violence against Jewish women and children both during and after the Holocaust, including the continuing brutality against survivors seeking to return home after liberation. The challenges involved in studying female and child sex abuse during the Holocaust and after liberation will also be addressed.
Dr. Sonja M. Hedgepeth and Dr. Rochelle G. Saidel, editors, discuss their 2010 groundbreaking book on the subject of sexual violence against Jewish women during the Holocaust. They pay tribute to early researchers on the subject and reflect on the continued challenges for scholars. Including this subject in Holocaust history provides a fuller understanding of what many women endured.
This programme is in partnership with the Remember the Women Institute, Women in the Holocaust – International Study Center (MORESHET), Wagner College Holocaust Center, Classrooms Without Borders, Rabin Chair Forum Washington University, and the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre.
Click here to register.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day
2023-01-26 18:30 - 21:00 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
The Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, and the United Nations Information Centre Pretoria invite you to their annual commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on the 78th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz.
The commemoration will include formal remarks from foreign dignitaries, candle-lighting by Holocaust survivors, and a commemoration lecture: ‘Remembering the Holocaust through personal objects’. Today, museums and exhibitions across the world collect and display original artefacts from the Holocaust. At first glance, many appear to be rather unremarkable: a shoe, a suitcase, a pair of spectacles. But this is to overlook the fact that these seemingly everyday objects are among the last remnants of a murdered people, and each has its own unique story to tell.
Join Paul Salmons as he shares the stories of artefacts that have touched him most deeply, and asks what meanings they hold for us today?
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Paul Salmons specialises in difficult, challenging histories, exploring the continued relevance of the past in today’s complex world. He helped create the United Kingdom’s national Holocaust Exhibition at the Imperial War Museum; co-founded the Centre for Holocaust Education at University College London; and for 20 years played a leading role in the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. He is also the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s first Gonda Fellow.
Paul is Chief Curator of Seeing Auschwitz (produced by Musealia for UNESCO and the United Nations), and co-curator of Musealia’s international award-winning Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away. Recently he was consulting curator on two new permanent Holocaust exhibitions that opened in New York City and St Louis, Missouri, and he currently is working on a major new exhibition on the Berlin Wall.
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RSVP essential to dowi@jhbholocaust.co.za

Exclusive Walkabout of "Seeing Auschwitz" with Paul Salmons
2023-01-26 13:00 - 14:30 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
Paul Salmons is Chief Curator of Seeing Auschwitz (produced by Musealia for UNESCO and the United Nations), and co-curator of Musealia’s international award-winning Auschwitz: Not long ago. Not far away. Recently he was consulting curator on two new permanent Holocaust exhibitions that opened in New York City and St Louis, Missouri, and he currently is working on a major new exhibition on the Berlin Wall.
RSVP to dowi@jhbholocaust.co.za

Special Film Preview: I Am Here
2023-01-25 19:00 - 21:00 | Ster Kinekor Nouveau Rosebank
Join us for a special film preview of “I am Here”, Holocaust survivor Ella Blumenthal’s story. The preview including remarks by Holocaust education expert Paul Salmons, followed by a Q&A with the producer and director of the film.
Book your tickets directly with Ster Kinekor here.

Resistance in Treblinka: The Tangible Witnesses
2023-01-18 20:00 - 21:30 | Online
80 Years After Aktion Reinhard: The Industrial Killing of European Jewry:
Resistance in Treblinka: The Tangible Witnesses
In the third programme of this series, resistance in Treblinka is examined. The systematic murder on the Treblinka extermination camp began in July 1942 with the arrival of the first transport from the Warsaw Ghetto. By the time the camp was dismantled, a little over a year later, roughly 900,000 people, the vast majority of whom were Jews, had been murdered there. The existing sources of information available demonstrate how difficult it is to paint a clear picture of what was happening in that terrible place of mass killing. Whether these sources date back to the time the events took place, or were later sources, we can witness the many influences affecting them.
Dr. Tamir Hod will present examples of the gaps between memory and history when it comes to the Treblinka extermination camp. This introductory lecture will explain the importance of combining research from different fields, such as archeology and history, in order to try to grasp the impossible.
Professor Caroline Sturdy Colls will discuss the tangible and intangible evidence of resistance at Treblinka, derived from her archaeological and historical investigations since 2007. As well as addressing the material traces of resistance at the infamous extermination camp (Treblinka II), she will also consider the lesser-known role of the inmates and guards from Treblinka labour camp (Treblinka I) in resistance activities.
The program will conclude with a virtual tour given by Yaron Tzur of the Treblinka model that is located at the Ghetto Fighters’ House. This model, serving as post-war tangible evidence, was built by Yaakov Wiernik who was one of the survivors of the Treblinka and the uprising in August, 1943.
Registration link: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_byLpgDYvRI6YulHGzZCX2Q

Beyond Oneg Shabbat: Groundbreaking Research and Findings in the JHI
2022-12-11 21:00 - 22:30 | Online
Talking Memory Series Marking the 75th Anniversary of the Jewish Historical Institute. Join us for the third and final programme in the series on the Jewish Historical Institute:
Beyond Oneg Shabbat: Groundbreaking Research and Findings in the JHI
In this third and final programme, our speakers will present their research and findings in the JHI that go beyond the Warsaw ghetto.
Guest Speakers:
Dr Ewa Wiatr who will give a talk on The Łódź ghetto’s Legacy at the Jewish Historical Institute and Piotr Nazaruk who will reveal the latest discoveries in a talk entitled: Unburned: The Library of the Lublin Yeshiva.
This series is in partnership with the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, the Polish Institute in Tel-Aviv, the Grodzka Gate – NN Theatre in Lublin, the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Center, Liberation 75, Classrooms without Borders, and the Rabin Chair Forum at George Washington University.
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Mass-Killing in 1942-1943: ‘Operation Reinhardt’ Killing Centres
2022-12-07 20:00 - 21:30 | Online
A Special Series with the Galicia Jewish Museum and the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Center. Join us for the second programme in the series on 80 Years After Aktion Reinhard: The Industrial Killing of European Jewry:
Mass-Killing in 1942-1943: ‘Operation Reinhardt’ Killing Centres
Guest Speakers:
Chris Webb
Tali Nates
In the second programme of this series, author Chris Webb will explore the history of the Bełżec, Sobibór and Treblinka death camps. He will look at some of the key SS figures responsible for running the sites and the Jewish prisoners who were deported there. Finally, he will describe the heroic and dramatic revolts that took place in the camps. Tali Nates, director of the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Center (South Africa) will share her family’s history connected to both Treblinka and Belżec death camps.
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Film Screening: Facing Auschwitz
2022-12-01 19:00 - 20:30 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa

Coming to terms with Genocides
2022-11-29 19:30 - 21:30 | Online
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JHGC Members Only: "Seeing Auschwitz" Exclusive Viewing
2022-11-28 15:00 - 17:00 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa

South Africa - On the Edges of Polish Identity
2022-11-27 15:00 - 17:00 | Online
Event Details
During and after WWII, Russia forcibly uprooted millions of Poles from the Kresy of eastern Poland. Those Kresovians who survived the deportations to Siberia were scattered around the globe. In South Africa, 500 children and their caregivers found safety and refuge in Oudtshoorn. These Polish children of Oudtshoorn went on to form the core of the Polish community in South Africa. Listen to Dr Wanda Chunnett and Dr Marta Nowakowska discuss these refugees re-establishing their identity in a new country.
Source: Map generated by the authors from MPIDR and CGG (2011) and GADM (2008).

Characteristics of Polish Refugee Entrepreneurs who Established Sustainable Businesses in South Africa
Wanda’s presentation provides a contribution to the debate on the value that is created by migrant entrepreneurs in developing economies and answers the question as to what these countries can do to leverage sustainable growth opportunities from resource constrained, involuntary migrant entrepreneurs. Wanda investigated three migrant groups to South Africa, namely, Rwandese, Chinese and Polish migrants. Wanda seeks to take the involuntary migrant debate beyond the “refugee as burden” paradigm, by focusing on a theoretical proposition that the legal, knowledge, language and economic capital gained by constrained migrant entrepreneurs gives them a competitive advantage when establishing small businesses. The entrepreneurial spirit of a group of Polish orphans that was involuntarily transported to South and Southern Africa during WWII, allowed them to establish a locus of power in their host country, augmented by additional “migration capital”. The presentation considers the benefit that can be realised by host country, in this case South Africa, where the process driver remains the migrant entrepreneur, eager to become established in a new country and achieve their long-term vision, including re-establishing their identity.
Wanda Chunnett is a business practitioner with a passion for the development of small businesses as a route to long term economic sustainability. The daughter of a displaced migrant, her Doctoral thesis focused on providing insight into how these migrants add value to their host countries, providing a counterpoint to the often-prevalent view of “migrant as burden.

Managing Cultural Heritage. An introduction to the identity of Kresovians/Borderlanders of inter-war Poland
Involuntary migrants occupy a special place in the landscape of many modern states. Despite the diverse national cultures surrounding them – they strive to preserve their own identity. They are often united by multi-generational cooperation, coexistence and a system of values. Awareness of cultural identity is associated with a sense of belonging to one’s own community, with identification with that community with its specific culture and shared history, with a particular territory that one inhabits together, at the same time as a sense of apparent distinctiveness to other groups. Marta will address the issue of Borderland/Kresy identity. The Borderlands/Kresy are a Polish place of memory, vividly pulsating, full of individual emotions, and at the same time, a myth-making message. The longing for the lost homeland triggers unique memories, inscribing them into the cultural memory of successive generations of Poles. How do the generations of the South African Siberians remember the Borderlands/Kresy? How does the memory of the Borderlands/Kresy shape generations of Poles living outside their homeland? What is the concept of double identity? How should we think about our homeland? Marta’s presentation aims to answer these and other questions.
Marta Nowakowska is an assistant professor at the Department of Management, Wrocław University of Science and Technology. Her scientific background is an MA and PhD in Anthropology of Culture. She is interested in the subject of cultural heritage, identity and memories, and cultural risk analysis. In her profession, she addresses the topic of the training methods to minimise cultural errors.

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