Film screening of Memory is Our Homeland
2024-08-22 19:00 - 20:30 UTC | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
August 23 is the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism created by the European Parliament in 2008. This day is also the day on which in 1939 the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact was signed. A Pact that allowed for Germany under Hitler and Soviet Union under Stalin to divide much of Europe. To commemorate this day, you are invited to a screening of the film “Memory is our Homeland”.
Produced by Jonathan Durand, this film charts the lost story of Polish refugees in Africa during WWII – a journey that brought a group of children to labour camps in Siberia, onward to Iran, India, and East Africa, to new lives across the global Polish diaspora. It follows the story of Kazia Kolodziej (née Gerech), the filmmaker’s grandmother, and other Polish refugees, as they meditate on the meaning of memory, identity, and homeland. Grappling with memories of a traumatic exile in the Soviet Union, followed by an adolescence full of discovery in a Polish refugee camp near the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro, we see how these children’s lives have been shaped by early years fraught with insecurity and change.
RSVP here or to dowi@jhbholocaust.co.za
THURSDAY 22 AUGUST 2024, 7PM (SAST)

Lessons in Resilience from the Holocaust and Genocide featuring Wolf Gruner Resisters. How Ordinary Jews fought Persecution in Hitler’s Germany
2024-08-28 20:00 - 21:30 | Online
Join us for the next installment in the webinar series Lessons in Resilience from the Holocaust and Genocide featuring Wolf Gruner

Wolf Gruner: Resisters: How Ordinary Jews fought Persecution in Hitler’s Germany

Wolf Gruner holds the Shapell-Guerin Chair in Jewish Studies, is Professor of History at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles since 2008 and the Founding Director of the USC Dornsife Centre for Advanced Genocide Research (previously USC Dornsife Shoah Foundation Centre for Advanced Genocide Research) since 2014. He is a specialist in the history of the Holocaust and in comparative genocide studies. He received his PhD in History from the Technical University Berlin in 1994 as well as his Habilitation in 2006. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University, Yad Vashem Jerusalem, the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, Women’s Christian University Tokyo, and the Centre for Jewish Studies Berlin-Brandenburg, as well as the Desmond E. Lee Visiting Professor for Global Awareness at Webster University in St. Louis.
He is an appointed member of the Academic Committee of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum (since 2017), the executive committee of the Consortium of Higher Education Centres of Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Studies (since 2018), the International Academic Advisory board of the Centre for the Research on the Holocaust in Germany at Yad Vashem’s International Institute for Holocaust Research, Jerusalem (since 2012), and the International Advisory Board of the Journal of Genocide Research (since 2010).
He is the author of ten books on the Holocaust, among them Jewish Forced Labor under the Nazis. Economic Needs and Nazi Racial Aims with Cambridge University Press (2006). His 2016 prizewinning German book was published in 2019 as The Holocaust in Bohemia and Moravia. Czech Initiatives, German Policies, Jewish Responses with Berghahn in English, as well as in Czech, and is forthcoming in Hebrew.
He coedited four books, including Resisting Persecution. Jews and Their Petitions during the Holocaust (Berghahn 2020), New Perspectives on Kristallnacht: After 80 Years, the Nazi Pogrom in Global Comparison (Purdue UP 2019), and The Greater German Reich and the Jews. Nazi Persecution Policies in the Annexed Territories 1935-1945 (Berghahn 2015).
His new book Resisters. How Ordinary Jews fought Persecution in Hitler’s Germany (Yale University Press 2023) is written for a wider audience and features the life stories of five Jewish men and women who resisted in different ways against persecution in Nazi Germany. By discussing many of such courageous acts, the book demonstrates the wide range of Jewish resistance in Nazi Germany, challenges the myth of Jewish passivity and illuminates individual Jewish agency during the Holocaust.
Prof. Gruner will be in conversation with Tali Nates, the founder and director of the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre (JHGC) and Chair of the South African Holocaust & Genocide Foundation (SAHGF). She is a historian who lectures internationally on Holocaust and genocide education, memory, reconciliation, and human rights. Born to a family of Holocaust survivors, her father and uncle were saved by Oskar Schindler. Tali has been involved in the creation and production of dozens of documentary films, published many articles and contributed chapters to different books among them God, Faith & Identity from the Ashes: Reflections of Children and Grandchildren of Holocaust Survivors (2015), Remembering The Holocaust in Educational Settings (2018), Conceptualising Mass Violence, Representations, Recollections, and Reinterpretations (2021) and The Routledge Handbook of Memory Activism (2023). South Africa by the Mail & Guardian newspaper and won many awards including the Kia Community Service Award (South Africa, 2015), the Gratias Agit Award (2020, Czech Republic), the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Award (2021), the Goethe Medal (2022, Germany), and the US Secretary of State’s International Religious Freedom Award (2023).
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Restoring Roots: Reclaiming Polish, Lithuanian and German Citizenship with Eva Hussain
2024-09-05 18:00 - 19:30 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
Eastern Europe once had one of the world’s largest Jewish communities, now among the smallest. Its history reflects vibrant pre-war life, the devastation of war, post-war antisemitism, and emigration. Since the 1970s, descendants have returned, seeking traces of this lost world. This trend grew as Eastern European nations joined the EU, spurring interest in reclaiming citizenship. In this session, Eva Hussain, CEO of Polaron, will discuss helping people reclaim Polish, German or Lithuanian citizenship, shedding light on the emotional and legal aspects of reconnecting with ancestral lands. Join us for a thought-provoking conversation on heritage, identity, and citizenship in Eastern Europe.
Eva Hussain, founder of Polaron, is an expert in language services and European citizenship. She actively contributes to the company’s global growth and serves on several boards, including Creativity Australia and the Association of Polish Jews. InMarch 2022, Eva was appointed Honorary Consul General of Austria in Victoria. A recipient of multiple business and equity awards, her experience as a Polish refugee drives her passion for community work and the translation industry.
5 September at 18:00
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Colonial Violence, the Holocaust, and Contested Politics of Memory in Germany with Prof Carola Lentz
2024-09-16 18:00 - 19:30 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
Join the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre and the Goethe-Institut Johannesburg for a talk on
Colonial Violence, the Holocaust, and Contested Politics of Memory in Germany with Prof Carola Lentz

In which direction should German state policies of memory develop? What is the future of Holocaust remembrance in an increasingly multi-ethnic, post-migrant society and in the face of the death of the last survivors of the Shoah? Which place should colonial crimes have in public remembrance? These and related questions have been, and continue to be, subject of intense debate in Germany. Tracing important stages of the politics of memory since the Second World War, the presentation will focus on the contestations surrounding recent attempts to engage with Germany’s colonial past.

Carola Lentz is a Senior Research Professor in the Department of Anthropology and African Studies at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, and the President of the Goethe-Institut. Her current research interests include ethnicity and nationalism, colonialism and decolonisation, politics of remembrance, middle classes in the Global South and educational biographies. She conducted field research first in South America and, since 1987, regularly in West Africa. Carola Lentz is a member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and of the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. She is also a member of the advisory board of the German Federal Cultural Foundation, the German Language Council, the board of trustees of the German Academy for Language and Poetry, the board of #1014 New York, the board of trustees of the Giesecke & Devrient Foundation and the board of trustees of the Anne Frank Education Centre.
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16 September, 17:30 for 18:00

Film screening of Family Treasures Lost & Found and virtual Q&A
2024-09-19 18:00 - 19:30 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
Join the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre and Rosa Luxemberg Foundation for a film screening of
Family Treasures Lost & Found

This documentary tracks journalist Karen A. Frenkel investigates her parents’ unspoken WWII stories. She knew little about their lives before and during the Holocaust, but her detective work leads to astonishing revelations of her parents’ and one grandparent’s journeys to freedom. Karen shares steps in family history research such as using digital and real-world archives to fills gaps in what she was told. A family archive of portraits, photos, documents, and artefacts also reveals the cultural life of pre-war urban assimilated Polish Jews. The process deepens Karen’s appreciation for her relatives’ resistance to fascism, luck, altruism, and the reasons for their silence. She honours her parents, sole surviving grandfather, and lost relatives, who cease to be mere names. Ultimately, Karen ensures that memories of a vanished culture will endure and shows why filling in the blanks of lives lost is important not only to her, but to the history of the Jewish people and society as a whole.
Learn more about the film here
The screening will be followed by a virtual Q&A with Karen A. Frenkel and director Marcia Rock.
19 September 18:00
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Lessons in Resilience from the Holocaust and Genocide with Asya Darbinyan: The Remarkable Resilience of the Armenian Genocide Refugees
2024-09-25 20:00 - 21:30 | Online
The event is on 25 September at 8pm SAST
Join us for the next instalment in the webinar series Lessons in Resilience from the Holocaust and Genocide with Asya Darbinyan

The Remarkable Resilience of the Armenian Genocide Refugees
The Armenian genocide—orchestrated and systematically implemented by the Ottoman government against its Armenian subjects under the cover of the First World War—was a disaster that inflicted tremendous suffering and pain upon a people. The genocide took over 1.5 million lives, triggered huge population movements, and left hundreds of thousands of Armenians, as well as Assyrians and Greeks, without home and hope. In her talk, Dr. Darbinyan reflects on the successful attempt of refugee-survivors, including women and children, to self-organise and help each other during the Armenian Genocide. The tremendous operations of Armenian volunteers to liberate abducted Armenian women and children from captivity, the willingness and strength of exhausted and famished children to overcome endless obstacles and even find their way back home, the efforts of refugees in classrooms and workshops to teach and train children survivors are testimony to the remarkable resilience in a time of catastrophe. The decisions made and the actions taken by those individuals constitute critical examples of agency, self-help, and self-organisation.
Dr. Asya Darbinyan is the Executive Director of Chhange (Centre for Holocaust, Human Rights & Genocide Education) at Brookdale Community College in Lincroft, NJ. She earned her Ph.D. in History from the Strassler Centre for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark University, Worcester, MA. Darbinyan’s research and teaching expertise stand at the intersection of genocide, refugees, and humanitarian interventions, with a focus on the agency and actions of refugees in addressing their suffering and plight. Prior to joining Chhange, Darbinyan worked as a Visiting Professor at the Strassler Centre at Clark, where she taught courses on Genocide and Women, the Armenian Genocide, and the History of Genocide. Darbinyan has also served as a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Martin-Springer Institute at Northern Arizona University (NAU), and a Fellow in Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Stockton University. She was the Deputy Director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute in Yerevan, Armenia, prior to pursuing her doctoral degree in the USA.
Dr. Darbinyan will be in conversation with Tali Nates, the founder and director of the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre (JHGC) and Chair of the South African Holocaust & Genocide Foundation (SAHGF). She is a historian who lectures internationally on Holocaust and genocide education, memory, reconciliation, and human rights. Born to a family of Holocaust survivors, her father and uncle were saved by Oskar Schindler. Tali has been involved in the creation and production of dozens of documentary films, published many articles and contributed chapters to different books among them God, Faith & Identity from the Ashes: Reflections of Children and Grandchildren of Holocaust Survivors (2015), Remembering The Holocaust in Educational Settings (2018), Conceptualising Mass Violence, Representations, Recollections, and Reinterpretations (2021) and The Routledge Handbook of Memory Activism (2023). South Africa by the Mail & Guardian newspaper and won many awards including the Kia Community Service Award (South Africa, 2015), the Gratias Agit Award (2020, Czech Republic), the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Award (2021), the Goethe Medal (2022, Germany), the US Secretary of State’s International Religious Freedom Award (2023), and the International Network of Genocide Scholars (INoGS) 2024 Impact Award.
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Exhibition opening: The Righteous Among the Nations
2024-09-29 15:00 - 17:00 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
29 September at 15:00
Join the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre and the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Pretoria for the opening of the new temporary exhibition, The Righteous Among the Nations. The opening will include formal remarks from Ambassador of the Czech Republic to South Africa Ambassador Tomáš Uličný, a presentation by Zuzana Pavlovská, Ph.D from the Jewish Museum in Prague, and a walkabout.
This Yad Vashem exhibition explores stories of rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust who came from different countries, religions, genders, ages and social backgrounds. They risked their lives to save Jews despite facing danger and even death. Yad Vashem recognises rescuers by awarding them the title of ‘Righteous Among the Nations’.
Guest speaker, Zuzana Pavlovská has been the Head of the Department for Education and Culture of the Jewish Museum in Prague since 2011. The Department collaborates with some leading universities and educational institutions – including the Terezín Memorial, the Institute for Contemporary History at the Czech Academy of Sciences, Charles University in Prague, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the Yad Vashem Memorial – as well as with independent historians, experts in Jewish studies, literary scholars, scientists and teachers. Zuzana has been involved in several educational projects and gives lectures on Jewish studies and Modern Hebrew both in the Czech Republic and internationally, at the Charles University, the Johannesburg Holocaust Genocide Centre and their branches in Durban and Cape Town as well as Bejt Terezin in Israel.
Zuzana studied at the Charles University in Prague and Hebrew University in Jerusalem. In 2019, she concluded her Ph.D. studies and wrote her thesis on the topic of women´s role in the Haskalah. Currently she is representing the Czech Republic in the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) and in 2020 she was the Chair of its Educational Working Group. From 2021 until 2023 she was the Deputy Director of the Jewish Museum in Prague.
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Exploring the Life and Art of Samuel Bak
2024-10-14 18:00 - 19:30 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
14 October 17:30 for 18:00
Join the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre and the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania in South Africa for an evening exploring the life and art of great contemporary artist, Samuel Bak in remembrance of the Holocaust in Lithuania.
The event will include formal remarks from ambassador of Lithuania to South Africa, Ambassador Rasa Jankauskaitė, a screening of the acclaimed film Samuel Bak: Painter of Questions, and a presentation by Dr Ute Ben Yosef, author of Art and Life: The Story of Samuel Bak.
Samuel Bak was born in 1933 in Vilna. His artistic talent was first recognised at an exhibition in the Vilna Ghetto when he was just nine. While he and his mother found refuge in a convent, his father and all four grandparents were killed by the Nazis and their local collaborators.
At the end of World War II, he fled with his mother to the Landsberg Displaced Persons Camp, where he enrolled in painting lessons. Bak studied art in Munich and later at the Bezalel Art School in Jerusalem after immigrating to the newly formed state of Israel with his mother in 1948. In 1956, he went to Paris to continue his education. He received a grant from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation to pursue his artistic studies. In 1959, he moved to Rome where his first exhibition of abstract paintings was met with considerable success. Since 1959, the artist has had numerous exhibitions in major museums, galleries, and universities throughout Europe, Israel, and the United States, including retrospectives at Yad Vashem Museum in Jerusalem, and the South African Jewish Museum in Cape Town. He has lived and worked in Tel Aviv, Paris, Rome, New York, and Luasanne. In 1993, he settled in Massachusetts and became an American citizen.
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From Darkness to Freedom: Honouring the 80th Anniversary of the Courageous Tunnel Escape from the Novogrudok Ghetto
2024-10-27 20:00 - 21:00 | Online
On September 26, 1943 about 240 Jews accomplished a daring escape from the Novogrudok (Navardok) labour camp in Belarus (White Russia) via an underground tunnel dug by the inmates over a period of several months. In this programme, we will focus on this little-known escape, which, according to research carried out by Dr. Betty Cohen, was the greatest prisoner escape of Jews during the Holocaust.
We are honoured to have Lady Gilbert give the opening remarks. Afterwards, Dr. Silberklang will present the broader picture of Jewish resistance in the ghettos. Dr. Betty Cohen, whose mother, Fania Dunetz Brodsky, was one of the escapees, will examine the survivors’ choice to rebuild their lives, where they did so, the legacies they left behind, and the families they created. She will also discuss her newly released book: Tunnel of Hope: Escape from the Novogrudok Forced Labour Camp, with a Forward by Prof. Yehuda Bauer. Tamara Vershitskaya, founder of the Jewish Resistance Museum in Novogrudok, will take us on a virtual tour of the exhibition. Our final speaker, Debra Brunner, CEO of the Together Plan, will discuss the organisation’s work in Belarus, including the “Making History Together” project that promotes Holocaust commemoration.
This programme is in partnership with The Together Plan, the Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain, Jewish Small Communities Network, Qesher, the Jewish Tapestry Project, DIALOG International Charitable Organisation, Jewish Religious Union (Belarus), Classrooms Without Borders, Rabin Chair Forum George Washington University, and the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre.
Registration is essential here:

Workshop on the History of Holocaust Literature with Prof Stuart Taberner
2024-10-28 16:00 - 17:00 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
Monday 28 October, 16:00
Join us for a one-hour workshop focusing on the History of Holocaust Literature, with some examples, and discussion of Dan Jacobson’s novel, Heshel’s Kingdom. Jacobson was a South African writer who wrote about his grandfather’s origins in Lithuania and his own visit to that country to visit sites of mass extermination.
Stuart Taberner is from the University of Leeds is the Principal Investigator on ‘Rethinking Holocaust Literature: Contexts, Canons, Circulations’ project, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and bringing together over forty scholars from around the world to examine eighty plus years of Holocaust literature across languages and cultures. (See https://sites.wustl.edu/rethinkingholocaustliterature/ ). Stuart’s own research focuses on German and German Jewish literature, thought and culture, and on Holocaust memory. His latest book on contemporary German Jewish fiction is forthcoming in 2025.
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My Mother, the Nazi Midwife and Me: Unpacking the Suitcase, Exploring our Stories with Gina Roitman
2024-10-31 18:00 - 19:00 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
Thursday 31 October, 18:00
This talk will explore how at birth we are all handed a bag that someone else packed. We carry it without questions for a long time until about middle age, at which point we have collected so much baggage of our own we begin wondering why this bag is so heavy. Why are we carrying it? If we’re lucky, there’s someone left to ask about the contents. Author Gina Roitman will discuss her own stories and impulse to explore them, including a discussion of the 2013 award-winning documentary of which she was the subject, My Mother, the Nazi Midwife and Me.
The author of the literary thriller, Don’t Ask and the short story collection, Tell Me a Story, Tell Me the Truth, Gina Roitman co-authored the biography Midway to China and Beyond, as well as the memoirs of several child survivors of the Holocaust. Her essays and poems have appeared in anthologies and magazines including Poetica, Wherever I Find Myself, Moment, the Forward and OftheBook Press.
In 2013, she was the subject of the award-winning documentary, My Mother, the Nazi Midwife and Me (available free on YouTube). Since 2017, Gina has led continuous workshops on memoir writing for Generations After of Greater Washington, DC and the Quebec Writers Federation. For more about Gina, go to www.ginaroitman.com
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Was my Grandfather a Nazi? A question that did not even arise with Lorenz Völker
2024-11-06 18:00 - 19:00 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
WEDNESDAY 6 NOVEMBER 18:00
Join the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre for a special talk by Lorenz Völker, as he shares his personal journey of discovering his late grandfather’s hidden past. Through years of research, Völker also uncovered the legal history of the Third Reich and brought together families of both perpetrators and Jewish victims. This moving exploration of German-Jewish history during National Socialism offers a message of reconciliation and hope.
Lorenz Völker was born in 1970 and teaches history and sports at the German International School in Johannesburg (DSJ) since 2024. German contemporary history is one of his main research interests. He was the co-founder of the Centre of German Sports history Berlin-Brandenburg in 2004 and has published mainly in the field of contemporary German sports history. His investigations into the fate of the Lehman family, who played an important role in the career of his grandfather led to memorial plaques, the so called Stopersteine, being laid for the Lehmans in 2014.
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86th Commemoration of the November Pogrom
2024-11-10 14:00 - 16:00 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
SUNDAY 10 NOVEMBER, 2PM (SAST)
The Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, the Goethe-Institut, and the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung invite you to their annual commemoration of the 1938 November Pogrom (Kristallnacht).
The commemoration will include formal remarks, a candle lighting ceremony, a performance by violinist Sharon De Kock, and a keynote address from Prof Hanna Yablonka, an internationally renowned Holocaust historian who among her numerous accolades pioneered the research field dealing with the survivors of the Holocaust after 1945. She will present a talk on Kristallnacht 1938: The final accord in a fateful year.
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Prof. Hanna Yablonka is affiliated with the History Department at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, as well as currently being a member of the Yad Vashem Council and was the academic advisor of Yad Vashem’s exhibition marking the 50th and 60th anniversary of the State of Israel. Hanna Yablonka is the chair of Governors of the Memorial Museum of the Hungarian Speaking Jewry in Safed and the chief Historian of the Ghetto Fighters Museum for the last 25 years. Her acadmeic research has focused on the cultural and social impact of the Shoah on Israeli society. She pioneered the research field dealing with the survivors of the Holocaust after 1945. In her research, she has emphasised the resilience and activism of the survivors. Hanna Yablonka is the author of over 40 scientific articles, The editor of 4 books, and the author of six books including: Survivors of the Holocaust (1999) awarded the Ish Shalom prize Yad Ben Zvi, The History of the War Veterans Association (1999,) The State of Israel vs. Adolf Eichmann (2004) awarded the Buchman prize Yad Vashem, Off the beaten track: the Mizrahim and the Shoah (2008). Her last book: Yeladim Besseder Gamur (children by the book) became a best seller.

Talking Memory Book Launch ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’: Representations and Meanings in Art
2024-11-17 21:00 - 22:00 | Online
SUNDAY 17 NOVEMBER 21:00
Join us for a special event marking the launch of Arbeit Macht Frei, the final book in Dr. Batya Brutin’s trilogy on Holocaust icons in visual art.
The programme opens with remarks from Yigal Cohen, CEO of Ghetto Fighters’ House. Prof. Shelley Hornstein will then explore how visual art—through sculptures, photographs, and paintings—helps preserve Holocaust history, sharing insights from her work on The Evidence Room, an exhibition using Auschwitz archives to challenge perceptions of reality through art.
Dr. Batya Brutin will then discuss her journey in writing the trilogy and examine how both Jewish and non-Jewish artists employ Holocaust symbols, such as the raised hands of the Warsaw Ghetto boy, Auschwitz serial numbers, and “Arbeit Macht Frei” gate signs, to convey messages on social and political issues. She will explore how these powerful images continue to shape historical memory through art.
This programme is held in partnership with Remember the Women Institute, Women in the Holocaust International Study Centre, Moreshet Holocaust and Study Centre, Classrooms Without Borders, Rabin Chair Forum at George Washington University, and the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre.
Registration is essential here

In Conversation with Dariusz Popiela
2024-11-20 16:30 - 19:30 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
WEDNESDAY 20 NOVEMBER : Film screening at 16:30 and Talk at 18:30
Join us for a conversation with Dariusz Popiela, a Polish Olympic athlete, who in 2018, founded the Popiela Family Foundation “Centrum”. It’s focus is on the “People, not numbers” project to commemorate victims by name and restore their memory. He also co-organises events in Poland honouring Holocaust victims and promoting Jewish culture and has spearheaded the construction of monuments that name the Jewish Holocaust victims from small towns and villages across southern Poland.
A screening of the film “Edge of Light,” highlighting his memory work, will precede his talk at 16:30 for interested viewers. Refreshments will be served between the screening and the talk.
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11th Annual South Africa-Poland Heritage Conference: Remembering the 85th Anniversary of Russia Invading Poland and the 80th Anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising
2024-11-24 14:00 - 16:00 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
SUNDAY 24 NOVEMBER 14:00
Join the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre in collaboration with the Association of Siberian Deportees, Sol Plaatje University, and the Embassy of Poland for the 11th Annual South Africa-Poland Heritage Conference: Remembering the 85th Anniversary of Russia Invading Poland and the 80th Anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising.
Speakers include:

Stefan Szewczuk: PhD candidate University of the Witwatersrand; President of the Polish Association of Siberian Deportees in Southeast Africa; Vice-President of the Polish Heritage Foundation in Southern Africa, who will present on Berling’s Army and my grandparent’s role in the Warsaw Uprising

Dr Pieter L. Möller: Former Senior Lecturer in the department of History at North West University, and former lecturer in History at the University of Stellenbosch who will present The South African Air Force and the Warsaw Airlift: Examples of Bravery

Dr Cobus Rademeyer: Senior Lecturer in History at the Sol Plaatje University in Kimberley who will presentThe Polish orphans of Oudtshoorn (1943 to 1947): the Jan Smuts factor

Jarryd Clark: Masters candidate at the University of Pretoria who will present An Enigma within Enigma: The Underrepresented History of Polish Codebreakers during the Second World War
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Working with Perpetrator Images: Exploring Propaganda Photographs held at Documentation Obersalzberg
2024-11-25 14:00 - 15:00 | Online
MONDAY 25 NOVEMBER 14:00 SAST
Join us for an online workshop on
Working with Perpetrator Images: Exploring Propaganda Photographs held at Documentation Obersalzberg
The workshop will be opened by Sebastian Peters, an expert on Heinrich Hoffmann, Adolf Hitler’s official photographer. Peters will introduce the material and work of the centre and this will be followed by a discussion on selected propaganda photographs lead by one of their Museum Educators, Leonie Zangerl.
Sebastian Peters, Researcher and Curator and Leonie Zangerl, Museum Educator, are both from Documentation Obersalzberg, a place to learn about and remember the history of Obersalzberg and the Nazi dictatorship. Learn more about their work here.
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Lessons in Resilience from the Holocaust and Genocide Stories of Resilience: Learning from Survivors of the Holocaust and the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda with Dr Sara Brown
2024-11-26 21:00 - 22:00 | Online
26 NOVEMBER 21:00
Join us for the next instalment in the webinar series Lessons in Resilience from the Holocaust and Genocide featuring Dr Sara Brown
Stories of Resilience: Learning from Survivors of the Holocaust and the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda

Dr. Brown will focus on testimony excerpts of survivors who describe life after their traumatic experiences of the Holocaust and genocide, and connect to how those lessons of resilience resonate even today.
Sara E. Brown, Ph.D. is the Regional Director of American Jewish Committee San Diego. She holds the first Ph.D. in comparative genocide studies from the Strassler Centre for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark University. She was a director of Chhange, a Holocaust, human rights, and genocide education non-profit and managed post-secondary education programming for USC Shoah Foundation. Sara has taught courses on history, human rights, and mass violence, conducted genocide-related research in Rwanda, and served as a project coordinator in refugee camps in Tanzania. Sara is the author of Gender and the Genocide in Rwanda: Women as Perpetrators and Rescuers and the co-editor of the Routledge Handbook on Religion, Mass Atrocity, and Genocide. She has consulted for a number of international organisations, including the United Nations.
Dr Brown will be in conversation with Tali Nates, the founder and director of the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre (JHGC) and Chair of the South African Holocaust & Genocide Foundation (SAHGF). She is a historian who lectures internationally on Holocaust and genocide education, memory, reconciliation, and human rights. Born to a family of Holocaust survivors, her father and uncle were saved by Oskar Schindler. Tali has been involved in the creation and production of dozens of documentary films, published many articles and contributed chapters to different books among them God, Faith & Identity from the Ashes: Reflections of Children and Grandchildren of Holocaust Survivors (2015), Remembering The Holocaust in Educational Settings (2018), Conceptualising Mass Violence, Representations, Recollections, and Reinterpretations (2021) and The Routledge Handbook of Memory Activism (2023). South Africa by the Mail & Guardian newspaper and won many awards including the Kia Community Service Award (South Africa, 2015), the Gratias Agit Award (2020, Czech Republic), the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Award (2021), the Goethe Medal (2022, Germany), the US Secretary of State’s International Religious Freedom Award (2023), and the International Network of Genocide Scholar’s Impact Award (2024).
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Opening of FC Bayern Munich During National Socialism: Victims, Followers, Perpetrators
2024-11-28 17:30 - 19:00 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
THURSDAY 28 NOVEMBER 17:30 for 18:00
The Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, FC Bayern Museum, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, and the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Pretoria would like to invite you to join us at the opening event of FC Bayern Munich During National Socialism: Victims, Followers, Perpetrators.
The opening will feature an address by the Ambassador of Germany to South Africa H.E. Mr Andreas Peschke, and a keynote by Fabian Raabe, curator of the FC Bayern Museum and a walkabout of the exhibition.
This exhibition looks at the history of FC Bayern Munich during the Nazi period. It examines the role played by the club and its members in National Socialism, and explores the fate of those who were deported or fled for being Jewish or politically opposing the Nazi regime.
Please note that numbers are limited due to space constraints
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The Impact of Animation in Holocaust Remembrance
2024-12-01 21:00 - 22:30 | Online
SUNDAY 1 DECEMBER 9PM SAST
Join Us for a Special Programme
The Impact of Animation in Holocaust Remembrance
Animation has emerged as a powerful tool in Holocaust remembrance, blending art and education to convey stories and lessons for future generations. This programme will explore how animation enhances documentary films and museum experiences, bringing history to life in innovative ways.
After opening remarks by Dr. Judith S. Goldstein, Founder and Executive Director Emeritus Humanity in Action, Award Winning Director and Producer Dr Slawomir Grunberg will share insights and examples from his groundbreaking documentary films, showcasing how animation pushes the boundaries of traditional storytelling. Following this Motion Graphic Specialist, Ron Ayalon and Video Storyteller, Yuval Nathan will take us behind the scenes of their creative process in developing animated films for the Yad Mordechai Museum, offering a glimpse into how animation serves as an educational medium. Finally, Curator at Yad Mordechai, Tamar Herzberg and Director of Digital Content at Ghetto Fighters’ House, Yaron Tzur will demonstrate how museums integrate animated content to engage and educate visitors on Holocaust history.
This programme is presented in partnership with Yad Mordechai from Holocaust to Revival Museum, Humanity in Action, Classrooms Without Borders, the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, and the Rabin Chair Forum at George Washington University.
Join us for this unique exploration of how animation enriches Holocaust remembrance and education.
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International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2025
2025-01-29 18:00 - 19:30 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
29 January 2025, 17:30 for 18:00
Join us to commemorate
International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2025
Marking 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau

The commemoration will feature formal remarks, a survivor candle lighting, musical performance by Dr Sharon de Kock, and a keynote address by Professor Shirli Gilbert on Jewish Refugees from Nazism in Africa.
In the twenty-first century, Auschwitz—with its barracks, striped uniforms, and railroad tracks—has become the dominant icon of the Holocaust. In this talk, we will explore an aspect of Holocaust history that has long stood in the shadow of Auschwitz: the story of refugees. In particular, we will focus in on the almost 10,000 Jews from Nazi Europe who ended up in sub-Saharan Africa. Although these refugees reached physical safety, they suffered the effects of loss and displacement for decades after the war. How did they come to Africa, and what were their experiences in the far-flung destinations where they arrived? As we mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, we shine light on a lesser-known aspect of Holocaust history, which is nonetheless as important as the camps for our understanding of the genocide’s impact.
Shirli Gilbert is Professor of Modern Jewish History at University College London. She obtained her D. Phil in Modern History from the University of Oxford and was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Society of Fellows at the University of Michigan, and is the director of the Sir Martin Gilbert Learning Centre. She has published widely on modern Jewish life, particularly the Holocaust and its legacies, and Jews in South Africa. She is currently completing her fourth book, titled The Holocaust and Sub-Saharan Africa: A Documentary History (with Roni Mikel-Arieli).
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Film Screening of The Last Time We Were Children
2025-02-09 14:30 - 16:30 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
Sunday 9 February, 14:30 for 15:00
The Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre in partnership with the Italian Cultural Institute, invites you to a screening of The Last Time We Were Children, directed by Claudio Bisio.
Summer 1943, Rome. Four children – Italo, Cosimo, Vanda, and Riccardo – forge a deep bond despite the chaos of war. When Riccardo is taken to the ghetto on October 16th, his friends, aided by a nun and Italo’s brother, risk everything to rescue him. Their perilous journey through war-torn Italy becomes a tale of adventure, fear, and the profound impact of life and loss.
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Running 1 hour, 47 minutes

Jews in the Soviet Union: A Complex Narrative, Being Jewish in the Soviet Union - The Interwar Years
2025-02-16 21:00 - 22:00 | Online
16 February 2025, 9pm SAST
The Ghetto Fighters’ House recently launched a new permanent exhibition, “Among the Trees – The Holocaust in the Soviet Union” that commemorates the Jews of the former Soviet Union, in the interwar years, through their shared fate under the Nazi occupation, and after the war. This series will explore these three periods and the experiences of Soviet Jewry.
The first programme will focus on the interwar years. The first speaker, Professor Elissa Bemporad, will describe the ways in which Jews endured, adjusted to, and participated in the Soviet system both as individuals and as part of a Jewish collectivity during the first decades of its existence. Our second speaker, Liat Margalit, exhibition curator at the Ghetto Fighters’ House, will talk about the challenges and dilemmas she faced while researching and developing the exhibition Among the Trees.
This programme is in partnership with the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, Classrooms Without Borders and the Rabin Chair Forum at George Washington University.
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Online book launch of SPACES OF TREBLINKA: Retracing a Death Camp by Jacob Flaws
2025-02-17 19:00 - 20:30 | Online
17 February, 19:00 SAST
The Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre invites you to the launch of SPACES OF TREBLINKA: Retracing a Death Camp by Jacob Flaws

Spaces of Treblinka utilises testimonies, oral histories, and recollections from Jewish, German, and Polish witnesses to create a holistic representation of the Treblinka death camp during its operation. This narrative rejects the historical misconception that Treblinka was an isolated Nazi extermination camp with few witnesses and fewer survivors. Rather than the secret, sanitized site of industrial killing Treblinka was intended to be, Jacob Flaws argues, Treblinka’s mass murder was well known to the nearby townspeople who experi- enced the sights, sounds, smells, people, bodies, and train cars the camp ejected into the surrounding world. Through spatial reality, Flaws portrays the conceptions, fantasies, ideological assumptions, and memories of Treblinka from witnesses in the camp and surrounding towns. To do so he identifies six key spaces that once composed the historical site of Treblinka: the ideological space, the behavioral space, the space of life and death, the interactional space, the sensory space, and the extended space. By examining these spaces Flaws reveals that there were more witnesses to Treblinka than previously realized, as the transnational groups near and within the camp overlapped and interacted. Spaces of Treblinka provides a staggering and profound reassessment of the relationship between knowing and not knowing and asks us to confront the timely warning that we, in our modern, interconnected world, can all become witnesses.
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Echoes Across Time: Voices of Survival and Lessons for Our Future, A New World of Remembrance: Insights from Pinchas Gutter
2025-02-19 22:00 - 23:00 | Online
Wednesday 19 February, 22:00 SAST
“Echoes Across Time: Voices of Survival and Lessons for Our Future”
As we stand on the cusp of history, the voices of Holocaust and genocide survivors grow more urgent, reminding us of the cost of silence, the value of empathy, and the power of resilience. “Echoes Across Time” invites audiences to explore the critical lessons these testimonies offer—on values, democracy, and the warning signs of oppression. Through monthly episodes, each centered around a survivor’s testimony about their life experiences, this series probes the question: Are we truly listening? Join us as we amplify stories from the Holocaust to Rwanda, Cambodia, and beyond, engaging with survivors, scholars, and advocates who work tirelessly to preserve these legacies and inspire a more compassionate future.
“A New World of Remembrance: Insights from Pinchas Gutter”
Featuring: Holocaust survivor Pinchas Gutter, who will share profound reflections on how the weight of testimony has shifted over time and the ways memory adapts in a world where prejudice and intolerance persist. Pinchas’s story challenges us to think about our responsibility to remember, and how each of us can confront hate and build resilience within our own communities. This session explores what it means to carry the memories of the Holocaust and rebuilding life after it ended into the future and the lessons that memory can teach us in today’s world.

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Between the Drowned and the Saved: The representation and role of children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors in commemorative practice with Mirah Langer
2025-02-20 10:00 - 12:00 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
20 February 10am SAST
This talk examines how the children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors navigate private memory within families and sites of collective remembrance. It presents findings from 25 museum case studies on the representation of these descendants in exhibitions, exploring the impact of extending narratives to include the aftermath across generations. The research also includes results from inviting descendants to reflect on archival testimonies of their survivor family members. The study suggests the need to reconceptualise what the the flow of memory ‘from generation to generation’ might look like after such a catastrophe.
Mirah Langer was a teacher and journalist in Johannesburg for many years before embarking on her new research project. This research is part of a doctoral study at the University of Vienna in Austria. It has been supported by the Ernst Ludwig Ehrlich Studienwerk, OeAD – Austria’s Agency for Education and Internationalisation and theEuropean Holocaust Research Infrastructure.
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The Intersection of Heroism and Tragedy during the Holocaust in the Soviet Union
2025-02-23 08:00 - 17:00 | Online
Sunday, 9 March, 9pm SAST
Join us for the second programme in our series, Jews in the Soviet Union: A Complex Narrative.
This session, The Intersection of Heroism and Tragedy during the Holocaust in the Soviet Union, will explore the complexities of Jewish experiences in the region during World War II. Dr. Yaakov Falkov will provide an overview of Soviet Jews as both victims and fighters between 1941 and 1945. Dr. Marta Havryshko will discuss the survival strategies employed by Jewish women during the Holocaust in the Soviet Union. Finally, Marco Gonzalez, director of Yahad-In Unum, will examine the organisation’s ongoing work in mapping Jewish killing sites, collecting evidence and testimonies, and using a unique investigative methodology based on Soviet and German archives.
This programme is presented in partnership with the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, Classrooms Without Borders, the Rabin Chair Forum at George Washington University, the Together Plan, the Jewish Tapestry Project, and Yahad-In Unum.
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In Conversation with Dr Simonas Strelcovas: Echoes of the Past - Looking towards the Future: Jewish History and its Presence today at the Vilna Gaon Museum
2025-03-02 16:30 - 18:30 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
Join the JHGC and the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania to South Africa for
In Conversation with Dr Simonas Strelcovas: Echoes of the Past – Looking towards the Future: Jewish History and its Presence today at the Vilna Gaon Museum

Step into the story of Lithuania’s Jewish heritage—a tale of resilience, culture, and memory. From Vilnius, once the “Jerusalem of the North,” to the Holocaust’s tragic scars and today’s preservation efforts, this presentation delves into the rich Jewish legacy and the future of its remembrance. Explore how the Vilna Gaon Museum of Jewish History safeguards this past through artifacts, personal narratives, and groundbreaking research. Join us on a journey through time as the Museum honours history and shapes the future of Jewish heritage in Lithuania.
In 2007, Simonas Strelcovas defended his doctoral dissertation at Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania. From 2008 to 2018, he worked at Šiauliai University Lithuania, holding positions as an associate professor in the Department of History, chairman of the Scientific Institute Council, and head of the Humanities Research Center. In 2016, he completed a research internship at Waseda University in Tokyo, and in 2018, he interned at Meiji University in Nagoya. Since 2016, he has been an expert for the Research Council of Lithuania. Since 2022, he has been teaching at Vilnius University. In 2023, he was awarded the title of Honorary Associate Professor at the Faculty of History of Vilnius University. Since 2023, he has been the director of the Vilna Gaon Museum of Jewish History.
His main research interests include the history of World War II refugees in Lithuania, military history, and the history of everyday life. He is the author of three monographs and several dozen scholarly articles.
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ZAPP Fest Performance Showcase
2025-03-16 16:00 - 18:00 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
15 March 4pm SAST
Join the Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre, in collaboration with the Inside Out Centre for the Arts and the South African Poetry Project (ZAPP) for the
ZAPP Fest Performance Showcase

Join us to enjoy the performances of an exciting group of young South African poets as they explore the themes of the permanent exhibitions of the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre and the Inside Out Centre for the Arts.
The poems which will be performed are the product of a one-day poetry workshop facilitated by The South African Poetry Project (ZAPP). Learn more about ZAPP here.
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“Echoes Across Time: Voices of Survival and Lessons for Our Future” Session 2
2025-03-19 21:00 - 22:00 | Online
“Echoes Across Time: Voices of Survival and Lessons for Our Future”
As we stand on the cusp of history, the voices of Holocaust and genocide survivors grow more urgent, reminding us of the cost of silence, the value of empathy, and the power of resilience. “Echoes Across Time” invites audiences to explore the critical lessons these testimonies offer—on values, democracy, and the warning signs of oppression. Through monthly episodes, each centered around a survivor’s testimony about their life experiences, this series probes the question: Are we truly listening? Join us as we amplify stories from the Holocaust to Rwanda, Cambodia, and beyond, engaging with survivors, scholars, and advocates who work tirelessly to preserve these legacies and inspire a more compassionate future.
“Memory as a Democratic Tool: Michael Berenbaum on Survivor Testimonies and the Future”
Featuring: Renowned Holocaust scholar Michael Berenbaum, who will delve into how survivor testimony serves as a vital instrument in preserving and promoting democratic values, especially within the U.S. Michael will discuss the power of these testimonies in exposing the dangers of authoritarianism, encouraging critical thinking, and reinforcing the importance of active citizenship. He will also explore how survivor stories help prevent future atrocities by fostering empathy, understanding, and a deep respect for human rights.
Michael Berenbaum will be in conversation with Tali Nates, the founder and director of the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre (JHGC) and Chair of the South African Holocaust & Genocide Foundation (SAHGF). She is a historian who lectures internationally on Holocaust and genocide education, memory, reconciliation, and human rights. Born to a family of Holocaust survivors, her father and uncle were saved by Oskar Schindler. Tali has been involved in the creation and production of dozens of documentary films, published many articles and contributed chapters to different books among them God, Faith & Identity from the Ashes: Reflections of Children and Grandchildren of Holocaust Survivors (2015), Remembering The Holocaust in Educational Settings (2018), Conceptualising Mass Violence, Representations, Recollections, and Reinterpretations (2021) and The Routledge Handbook of Memory Activism (2023). South Africa by the Mail & Guardian newspaper and won many awards including the Kia Community Service Award (South Africa, 2015), the Gratias Agit Award (2020, Czech Republic), the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Award (2021), the Goethe Medal (2022, Germany), the US Secretary of State’s International Religious Freedom Award (2023), and the International Network of Genocide Scholar’s Impact Award (2024).
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