#GOHOMEGOTA: Film screening and Q&A
2024-02-20 18:00 - 19:30 UTC | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
Join the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre for a film screening and Q&A with director Sulochana Peiris.
This documentary looks at Sri Lanka’s 2022 Aragalaya protests from a protest movement building and mobilisation perspective and centres around interviews with several key core activists-belonging to different ethnic, linguistic, and professional backgrounds – who were part of the protest movement since its Galle Face occupation began. The interviews were carried out in two rounds, the first, while the Galle Face occupation was ongoing and the second round in January 2023, several months after the occupation was called off in the face of increasingly brutal state repression. They share their specific movement organisation, building, and communication strategies, the evolution of the movement and the current status amidst a counter-revolutionary repression unleashed by the Ranil Wickremasinghe administration. These leaders also discuss how they define and are working towards a “system change” which they envisioned to achieve through the aragalaya protest movement. It also contains interviews with Professor Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri, a political scientist from University of Colombo who frames through and places the aragalaya movement along the continuum of post-independence political/protest movement building and mobilisation process in Sri Lanka, Dr.Sanjana Hattotuwa, who discusses the role played by social media during the Galle Face occupation, and Ambika Sathkunanadan, former commissioner of Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission, who provides a critical analysis of the aragalaya protest movement for its lack of inclusivity across the country’s ethnic divides and an evident failure to platform unaddressed larger issues pertinent to the country’s thirty-year war.
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Lessons in Resilience from the Holocaust and Genocide Featuring Dr Nicole Fox on The Resilience of Female Survivors in the Aftermath of Genocide
2024-02-28 21:00 | Online
In the midst of uncertainty and shadows, our series on resistance stands as a beacon of hope. Over the course of our 8-part series, we aim to shed light on the stories of individuals and communities courageously facing prevailing challenges. Our mission is to create a space where narratives of resilience take centre stage, unveiling the indomitable strength of the human spirit in adversity.
Join us on this transformative journey; let this series serve as your source of empowerment, inspiring our community to find their own light within the encompassing shadows.
Inaugural Event! Featuring Nicole Fox:
The Resilience of Female Survivors in the Aftermath of Genocide:
Memorialization and Centring Women’s Experiences in Contemporary Rwanda
Nicole Fox, PhD
Nicole Fox, PhD is an Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at California State University Sacramento. Her research centres on how racial and ethnic contention impacts communities, with a focus on how remembrances of adversity shape social change and collective memory. Her current project examines individuals who conducted acts of rescue during episodes of mass violence, theorising how social factors shape high-risk actions. Her 2021 book After Genocide: Memory and Reconciliation in Rwanda (University of Wisconsin Press) focuses on how memorials to past atrocity impacts community development and reconciliation for survivors of genocide and genocidal rape. Her work has been supported by the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, the National Science Foundation, Andrew Mellon Foundation, and the American Sociological Society’s Fund for the Advancement of the Discipline, among 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.
The discussion will be moderated by Tali Nates.
Tali Nates is 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), Conceptualizing Mass Violence, Representations, Recollections, and Reinterpretations (2021) and The Routledge Handbook of Memory Activism (2023).
In 2021 she was part of the 12-member Expert Group of the Malmö Forum, serving in an advisory capacity to the Secretariat of the Malmö Forum on their programme on Holocaust remembrance, education and actions to combat antisemitism. Tali serves on many Advisory and Academic Boards including that of the Contested Histories Initiative, the Interdisciplinary Academic Journal of Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center and the Academic Advisory Group of the School of Social and Health Sciences, Monash University (IIEMSA), South Africa.
In 2010, Tali was chosen as one of the top 100 newsworthy and noteworthy women in
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 Religious Freedom Award.
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Book launch of Resisters: How Ordinary Jews Fought Persecution in Hitler's Germany
2024-03-10 14:30 - 17:00 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
Join the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre and Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung for the Johannesburg launch of Resisters: How Ordinary Jews Fought Persecution in Hitler’s Germany.
Jewish resistance during the Holocaust is still understood mostly in terms of rare armed group activities in the Nazi occupied East, for example ghetto uprisings or partisan activities. Resisters is based on a broader definition and countless hitherto untapped sources, including local police and court records as well as video testimonies of survivors. Introducing five new categories of resistance, the book shows how between 1933 and 1945 Jews performed countless resistance acts in Nazi Germany proper, by destroying Nazi symbols, publicly protesting against the persecution, disobeying Nazi laws and local restrictions, and defending themselves from verbal insults as well as physical attacks. The fact that so many German Jewish women and men of all ages, educations and professions defied the Nazis obliterates the common view of the passivity of Jews under Nazi persecution. Their courageous acts, however, still need to be incorporated into the general narrative of the persecution of the Jews in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust in general.
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, coedited four books, and has published almost 80 articles and book chapters.
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Closed event: Workshop with Wolf Gruner #LastSeen
2024-03-11 15:30 - 17:30 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
Please join us for an exclusive workshop with Professor Wolf Gruner looking at the #LastSeen Project. Please note that this event is only open to JHGC members, educators, volunteers and staff.

More than 200,000 people were deported from the German Reich between 1938 and 1945. Photographs of this have survived. Photos that show the events, those being persecuted, the perpetrators, those involved. The #LastSeen Project Images of the Nazi Deportations has set itself the goal of systematically recording, indexing and digitally publishing all images of the deportations from the German Reich for the first time in an image atlas.
Wolf Gruner holds the Shapell-Guerin Chair in Jewish Studies, is a Professor of History at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles and the Founding Director of the USC Dornsife Centre for Advanced Genocide Research.
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Members and invitation only: Film Screening of Fritz Bauer's Legacy
2024-03-17 15:00 - 17:00 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
In honour of Human Rights Month, the JHGC and Embassy of the Federal Republic of German Pretoria are hosting a screening of Fritz Bauer’s Legacy: Justice has no expiration.
Probably for the last time former SS-guards recently faced trial for their role in German concentration camps, as for many decades Germany’s justice system had difficulty dealing with its countless unpunished Nazi crimes. However, already in 1963 General State Prosecutor Fritz Bauer (1903-1968) aptly indicated that one should also prosecute small cogs in the machines of industrialised mass murder. Interspersed with stirring and moving first hand witness accounts of concentration camp survivors Fritz Bauer’s Legacy not only reveals a fascinating history of why it took so long for justice to find its way into German courts but it also effectively illustrates its significance for a future without mass murders and flagrant injustices.
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Rescue Outside the Ghetto Walls: Warsaw 1943-44 The Berman Collection
2024-03-17 20:00 - 21:00 | Online
Join us for the fourth programme in the “Bridge Over Troubled Water”: Solidarity and Civic Responsibility in Times of Crisis webinar series.

After the establishment of the Warsaw ghetto by the Nazis, numerous Jews settled on the “Aryan” side of the city, under assumed non-Jewish identities. Many managed to survive this way after the destruction of the ghetto, though living under constant threat of being identified and killed.
Our first speaker, Prof. Emanuel Berman, will share the heroic story of his parents, Basia and Adolf Abraham Berman, who also hid under false identities, and were very active in a clandestine network helping fellow Jews to survive. They provided forged identity papers, rent money, food, medical supplies and more, all while risking their own lives. This period is vividly described by Basia Temkin-Berman in a diary written during the occupation.
Noam Rachmilevitch, a senior researcher in the Ghetto Fighters’ House archive, will give a presentation centring on the Adolf Berman collection held in the museum’s archives. This unique collection offers insight into the practical implementation of the above-mentioned rescue efforts. Noam will focus on two key aspects of rescue: financial support and documentation supply.
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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A Conversation with HRH Prince Georg Friedrich of Prussia & Tali Nates: Confronting the Past ... Memory and Responsibility
2024-03-21 16:00 - 18:00 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
In honour of Human Rights Day, join the JHGC for
A Conversation with HRH Prince Georg Friedrich of Prussia & Tali Nates
Confronting the Past …
Memory and Responsibility
HRH Prince Georg Friedrich of Prussia is the great-great grandson of the last Kaiser of Germany, Wilhelm II. He relinquished part of a family inheritance due to moral considerations around his great-great grandfather’s attempts to use the Nazis to enhance his political position.
Tali Nates is the founder and director of the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, and is the recipient of both Germany’s Goethe Medal and the USA’s Secretary of State International Religious Freedom Award.
RSVP is essential here.
Confirm your place by 18 March. No one will be admitted without RSVP

Lessons in Resilience from the Holocaust and Genocide with Carl Wilkens: Rwanda’s community approach to rebuilding trust: restorative strategies for healing relationships
2024-03-27 20:00 - 21:00 | Online
Join us on this transformative journey; let this series serve as your source of empowerment, inspiring our community to find their own light within the encompassing shadows.

In the second installment of this series Carl Wilkens discusses Rwanda’s community approach to rebuilding trust: restorative strategies for healing relationships in conversation with Tali Nates.
For over a decade, Carl Wilkens has been sharing stories around the globe to inspire and equip people to “enter the world of The Other.” He was the only American who chose to stay in Kigali, Rwanda throughout the 1994 genocide. Venturing out each day into streets crackling with mortars and gunfire, he worked his way through roadblocks of angry, bloodstained soldiers and civilians armed with machetes and assault rifles in order to bring food, water and medicine to groups of orphans trapped around the city. Working with Rwandan colleagues, they helped save the lives of hundreds. His harrowing yet hopeful journey weaves together stories of tremendous risk and fierce compassion in the midst of senseless slaughter. In 2011, Carl completed a book detailing these days titled I’m Not Leaving. A 40 minute documentary by the same title has since been released. Carl’s storytelling does not stop with Rwanda’s tragic history, but moves forward to the powerful and inspiring recovery process. Among the many lessons he shares from his experience is the transformative belief that we don’t have to be defined by what we lost or our worst choices. We can be defined by what we do with what remains – what we do next after terrible choices. Each year he returns to Rwanda with students and educators to see for themselves how people are working together to rebuild their country and rebuild trust.
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Not Entirely Forgotten: The Polish-Jewish Officers Murdered In Katyn
2024-04-04 18:00 - 20:00 | Online
The Katyn Massacre, a tragic event during World War II, involved the mass execution of thousands of Polish military officers, intelligentsia, and other prominent figures by the Soviet secret police, the NKVD, in 1940. The victims were captured following the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939 and were held in various prisoner-of-war camps. In April and May 1940, they were systematically executed and buried in mass graves in the Katyn forest near Smolensk, Russia, as well as in other locations.
What many people don’t realize is that among the victims of the Katyn Massacre were also those who were of Polish-Jewish descent. Their stories, often overlooked or overshadowed by the broader tragedy, highlight the diverse backgrounds and identities of those affected by the atrocities of war.
Through discussion with Luc Albinski, founder of the Katyn Foundation and Families of Jewish Origins and Giora Bar-Nir, whose father was executed in Katyn, we seek to honour their memories and ensure that their stories are not forgotten.
The event will be led by CTHGC Director, Jakub Nowakowski, and will include a special message from the Polish Ambassador, H.E. Adam Burakowski.
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Poetry NonScenes Performance
2024-04-18 16:00 - 18:00 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
Come celebrate and enjoy the performances of an exciting group of young South African poets as they explore themes of community, human rights, and identity inspired by the JHGC exhibition.
The poems which will be performed are the product of a one-day poetry workshop facilitated by Mandi Vundla, a celebrated live poet.
This workshop is part of Poetry NonScenes project, and is a collaboration between UCL, ZAPP and the JHGC.
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April 1994: Reflections on South Africa and Rwanda through the Eyes of Reporters
2024-04-18 19:00 - 20:30 | Online
April 2024 marks 30 years since the start of the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda and the first democratic elections in South Africa. To mark this historically significant month, join the South African Holocaust & Genocide Foundation for a webinar reflecting back on April 1994 in both countries, through the perspective of members of the press who were reporting on events.
Christoph Plate will discuss his experiences of covering the Genocide in Rwanda, and Associate Professor William Gumede will present on the reporting of the first democratic elections, with the discussion chaired by JHGC Director Tali Nates.
Christoph Plate is the Director of the Media Programme South East Europe of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, and former Middle East Editor of the Sunday Edition of Neue Zuercher Zeitung. In the 1990s he worked as contributing Africa Correspondent for the Der Spiegel, reporting from the Genocide in Rwanda in 1994.
William Gumede is Associate Professor at the Wits School of Governance, Executive Chairperson of Democracy Works Foundation, and former Deputy Editor of The Sowetan. He held several leadership positions during the anti-apartheid struggle, multiparty negotiations, and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
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Healing Our Past Celebrating Our Future in Conversation with Nosipho Hani
2024-04-27 12:00 - 13:30 | Issy’s Coffee & Gift Shop, 1 Duncombe Road, Forest Town, 2193, South Africa
Join Issy’s and the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre for
Healing Our Past Celebrating Our Future in Conversation with Nosipho Hani

For Freedom Day, the JHGC and Issy’s are proud to launch Nosipho Hani’s new book Healing through Literature. The launch will include a panel on intergenerational trauma with experts including Tali Nates, Hazel Moagi, Michael Sission, Kenine Guhema & Bryan Mashego.
Nosipho Hani is an author and founder of the Bookarazzi Book Club. She is passionate about youth development and education like her grandfather Chris Hani.
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Lessons in Resilience from the Holocaust and Genocide Featuring Joanna Sliwa: An Unlikely Rescue
2024-05-01 20:00 - 21:30 | Online
Join us for the next installment in the Lessons in Resilience from the Holocaust and Genocide Featuring Joanna Sliwa

An Unlikely Rescue: A Jewish Woman Who Helped Thousands of Poles during the Holocaust

Dr. Joanna Sliwa is a historian at the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) in New York, where she also administers academic programmes. She has taught Holocaust and Jewish history at Kean University and Rutgers University. She has many years of experience working in teacher training on the Holocaust, including in her ongoing role as Faculty Advisor to the Master Teacher Institute in Holocaust Education at the Allen and Joan Bildner Centre for the Study of Jewish Life at Rutgers University – New Brunswick. Joanna’s scholarship focuses on the Holocaust in Poland and Polish Jewish history. Her first book, Jewish Childhood in Kraków: A Microhistory of the Holocaust won the 2020 Ernst Fraenkel Prize awarded by the Wiener Holocaust Library. Her second book, The Counterfeit Countess: The Jewish Woman Who Rescued Thousands of Poles During the Holocaust, is co-authored with Elizabeth B. White.
Dr. Sliwa 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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Prof Monika Grütters on Coming to Terms with the Nazi Past: Germany's Confrontation with its History
2024-05-02 17:30 - 19:30 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
Join us for cheese, wine, and a talk on
Coming to Terms with the Nazi Past: Germany’s Confrontation with its History with Prof Monika Grütters

Professor Monika Grütters is a German politician and academic. She has been a member of the German Bundestag under the CDU since 2005. From 2013 to 2021, she was Minister of State for Culture and the Media. Her political and academic expertise provide her unique insights into understanding how Germany confronts its Nazi past.
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Film Screening of Four Winters
2024-05-12 15:30 - 17:30 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
JOIN US on MOTHERS DAY For a High Tea and Special Screening of FOUR WINTERS Honouring the Mothers, Daughters & Sisters who Courageously Fought Back Against the Nazis and their Collaborators in WWII.
Following the screening Award Winning Director / Writer / Producer Julia Mintz will join us for an in-person Q&A
Torn from their families by the ravages of Hitler’s armies, men and women, many barely in their teens, escaped into the forests, banding together in partisan brigades; engaging in treacherous acts of sabotage, blowing up trains, burning electric stations, and attacking armed enemy headquarters. Against extraordinary odds, over 25,000 Jewish partisans courageously fought back against the Nazis and their collaborators from deep within the forests of WWII’s Belarus, Ukraine and Eastern Europe.
The last surviving partisans relive their journey in FOUR WINTERS, sharing their stories of resistance. Director Julia Mintz shines a spotlight on their transformation from young innocents raised in closely knit Jewish communities and families, to becoming fierce partisan soldiers with enduring hope, grit, magnificent courage and deep humanity.
Featuring the photography of Faye Schulman, partisan photographer clad in her signature leopard coat, and through a fusion of inspiring and powerful first-person interviews with stunning archival footage, FOUR WINTERS uncovers secrets held for lifetimes, revealing a heartfelt narrative of heroism, determination and resilience.
Julia Mintz is a writer, producer and director of documentary films, whose work focuses on inspiring narratives that reflect on soulful bravery and resistance against unimaginable odds. She has been on the producing team for films shortlisted for the Academy Awards, premiered at
Cannes, Sundance and TriBeCa, and won Emmy, Peabody and festival awards. Her films can be seen on HBO, PBS, American Masters, NETFLIX, Amazon, and are shown on college and university campuses across the country. Julia has worked on many of the country’s most celebrated documentary films. Recent projects include Mr. SOUL!, premiered at TriBeCa and short-listed for an Academy Award®; Joe Papp in Five Acts, premiered at TriBeCa for American Masters, and Get Me Roger Stone, premiered at TriBeCa, NETFLIX. Mintz produced the Emmy-nominated California State of Mind, PBS and post-produced Soundtrack for a Revolution, short-listed for an Academy Award® Best Documentary, premiered at CANNES, nominated for Writers Guild, HBO; Nanking, short-listed for Academy Award®, winner of Peabody®, Emmy®, and Editorial Award at Sundance; and Love Free or Die: Story of Bishop Gene Robinson, winner Sundance Jurors Choice. Additional projects include Equity, nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, winner of the Women’s Image Network Award; Muscle Shoals premiered Sundance; Bing Crosby Rediscovered, American Masters; Life and Times of Frida Kahlo, Emmy® nominee; Billy Strayhorn: Lush Life, Emmy® Award Best Documentary; Larry Kramer in Love and Anger, Emmy® nominee; reality TV series Broadway or Bust; and Cyndi Lauper: Still So Unusual. Julia has also produced programming for Discovery, NASA, National Geographic, NHK and SONY. Mintz’s
feature documentary, FOUR WINTERS, premiered at Lincoln Centre and is slated for its world theatrical premiere at the Film Forum in NYC September 2022.
An award-winning filmmaker and artist, Mintz is an accomplished multi-grant recipient for her work in film and visual arts. She has taught seminars on filmmaking and digital post-production at workshops worldwide, including Santa Fe Cinematographers Workshops, the International Film and Television Workshops in Camden, Maine, The SONY Production Workshops in Toronto, and Film Arts in Hong Kong, where Mintz was featured as the keynote speaker for the Trade and Development Council, and Film Arts International Seminar in China. Mintz has been a guest lecturer at Amherst College, the Trinity School, and held an adjunct faculty position at Long Island University in NYC.
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Lessons in Resilience from the Holocaust and Genocide with Dr. Khatchig Mouradian: Resisting the Armenian Genocide
2024-05-22 20:00 - 21:30 | Online
Join us to commemorate the Armenian Genocide with the next of the Lessons in Resilience from the Holocaust and Genocide with Dr. Khatchig Mouradian:
Resisting the Armenian Genocide: Lessons in Resilience from a Clandestine Network of Humanitarians
Dr. Khatchig Mouradian is a lecturer in Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies at Columbia University, and the Armenian and Georgian Area Specialist at the Library of Congress. Mouradian is the author of the award-winning book The Resistance Network: The Armenian Genocide and Humanitarianism in Ottoman Syria, 1915-1918. He is the co-editor of After the Ottomans: Genocide’s Long Shadow and Armenian Resilience and the forthcoming The I.B.Tauris Handbook of the Late Ottoman Empire: History and Legacy.

Dr. Mouradian 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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Military and Civilian Behaviour Towards Jews during the Holocaust in Bessarabia and Transnistria
2024-05-26 20:00 - 21:00 | Online
Join us for a webinar on Military and Civilian Behaviour Towards Jews during the Holocaust in Bessarabia and Transnistria as part of our new series on the Romanian Jewry during the Holocaust: Filling in the Gaps
The second programme in the series will focus on the military and civilian behavior towards Jews in Bessarabia and Transnistria during the Holocaust. Adrian Cioflâncă, director of the “Wilhelm Filderman” Centre for the Study of Jewish History in Romania and a member of the Collegium of the National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives, will discuss the role of police company attached to the Romanian Cavalry Corp, which was an elite unit that took part in the Blitzkrieg during the Barbarossa Operation. He will also discuss his documentary film, Memories from the Eastern Front that reveals a handsomely bound and carefully labelled photo album that bears silent witness to history as it traces the path of the 6th Regiment of the Romanian army during 1941 and 1942.
The presentation of Dr. Diana Dumitru, current Ion Ratiu Visiting Professor in Romanian Studies at Georgetown University, will delve into the painful Jewish-gentile interactions in the aftermath of the Holocaust in Bessarabia (since 1940 the Moldavian SSR), particularly focusing on the legacies of the of gentile collaboration with murderous Romanian authorities during World War Two. Using oral history interviews, archival material, and published memoirs, the study sheds light on the sensitive and perilous context surrounding the revelation of neighbours’ involvement in murder, betrayal, and plunder of Jewish inhabitants during the Holocaust.
Greta Barak, an archivist at the Ghetto Fighters’ House, will talk about Gershon Knispel’s Art Series “The Death March of the Romanian Jewry” that is located in the museum’s art archives. A leading Israeli artist, Gershon Knispel decided in the late 1990s to represent a chapter of the Romanian Jewry during the Holocaust, namely the fate of the Jews from Bessarabia.
The series is in participation with A.M.I.R. (The Association of Romanian Jewry in Israel), Romanian Cultural Institute in Tel Aviv, the Wilhelm Filderman Centre for the Study of Jewish History in Romania, the Elie Wiesel National Institute for Studying the Holocaust in Romania, Classrooms Without Borders, Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, and the Rabin Chair Forum at George Washington University.
REGISTER HERE:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEkd-6orDIsHdaIj7BBHHLsTWABFQCk0eLt

Jewish Forced Labour in Romania, 1940-1944
2024-06-02 20:00 - 21:00 | Online
Join us for a webinar on Jewish Forced Labour in Romania, 1940-1944 as part of our new series on the Romanian Jewry during the Holocaust: Filling in the Gaps
The third programme in the series will focus on Jewish forced labour in Romania during the Holocaust. Between 1941 and 1944, more than 100,000 Romanian Jews were conscripted into forced labour under the auspices of the Romanian military’s labour service system. Dr. Dallas Michelbacher’s presentation will look at how these labourers worked in a wide variety of contexts, including forced labour camps, mobile forced labour battalions, and forced labour units raised within Romanian cities. They performed numerous types of labour in the interest of the Romanian state, including road and railroad construction, clearing snow from streets and railroad tracks, work in war-related industry, and tasks of direct military significance like building and repairing fortifications. The forced labour system was part of a larger programme of persecution directed against Romanian Jews as part of the “Romanianization” policy pursued by Ion Antonescu’s regime, the goal of which was the complete removal of Jews from the Romanian social and economic life.
Greta Barak, an archivist at the Ghetto Fighters’ House, will present a war-time document stored in the GFH Archive: a note of the 89th Infantry Division of the Romanian Army concerning a group of 14 Jews sent to forced labour in October 1943.
The series is in participation with A.M.I.R. Organization, Romanian Cultural Institute in Tel Aviv, the Wilhelm Filderman Centre for the Study of Jewish History in Romania, the Elie Wiesel National Institute for Studying the Holocaust in Romania, Classrooms Without Borders, Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, and the Rabin Chair Forum at George Washington University.
Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcsf-usqjkuHNGbyMMVn8kJUXf5bAvRHu6t

Closed Event for members only: The legalities behind the crimes: war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide
2024-06-06 13:00 - 15:00 | Online
The JHGC invites members to this informative workshop, facilitated by the JHGC Education and Research Specialist, Dr Mispa Roux. She will explore the legal definitions and various elements of the three core international crimes listed in the title. Against the backdrop of international criminal law, Dr Roux will draw on examples of prosecution efforts at international criminal courts and tribunals. The aim of the workshop is to equip participants with a better understanding of the relevant law behind terminology used, in the context of both historic, and ongoing global mass atrocities.
Dr Mispa Roux joined the JHGC in April 2024 as an Education and Research Specialist in the fields of international criminal, human rights, and humanitarian law. Before joining the JHGC, Mispa was a senior lecturer at the Law Faculty of the University of Johannesburg, and a project coordinator at the University of Pretoria’s Centre for Human Rights. Mispa’s research and writing concentrate and analyse early warning indicators of genocide and crimes against humanity, the prevention and prosecution hereof, the question of state responsibility for these crimes, as well as methods that may achieve justice for victims of international crimes.
Members can RSVP to dowi@jhbholocaust.co.za to receive the registration link. Become a member for only R360 a year by clicking here, after which you can email dowi@jhbholocaust.co.za for the registration link.

Survival Strategies of Children: The Case of Jewish Orphans in Transnistria
2024-06-16 20:00 - 21:30 | Online
Join us for a webinar on Survival Strategies of Children: The Case of Jewish Orphans in Transnistria, the fourth programme in our series the Romanian Jewry during the Holocaust: Filling in the Gaps
This programme will focus on the experiences of Jewish children during the Holocaust. The study of children is a history in microcosm: it is the story of the Holocaust as seen through the eyes, and fates, of its youngest victims. Eyal Fabian, COO of The Association of Romanian Jewry in Israel will give the opening remarks and share with us the activities of the organization.
Dr. Patricia Heberer Rice will explore the world of the child: examining the ways in which youngsters managed the menacing world around them and illustrating their experiences through their own voices. By examining how children coped with the events of the Holocaust, not through adult eyes, but through their own, we learn how young people were able to transcend the physical and emotional traumas they experienced and cling to their hopes for survival.
Dr. Ionela Ana Dăsculțu will explore the complexity of the experiences of Jewish orphans who survived the dreadful conditions in Transnistria. The talk provides an overview of the factors that influenced the survival of these young people. The presentation will then focus on the daily lives of Jewish orphans in the Bershad ghetto, located in the Balta district. The Bershad ghetto, which consisted of dilapidated houses and ruins, lost about 60-75% of its inhabitants in the winter of 1941-1942. Some of the orphans living in this ghetto were sheltered in an orphanage, while others roamed the streets. As we shall see, both groups of orphans employed a variety of survival strategies and coping mechanisms while defying death in Transnistria.
Our final speaker, Greta Barak, will talk about Hersh Segal collection that was donated to the Ghetto Fighters’ House. While working as a mathematics schoolteacher, Segal encouraged child Holocaust survivors he was teaching to write about their war-time experiences in Transnistria. Some of these testimonies were collected in 1946 at the Jewish orphanage in Bacau, and the rest in 1947, at the Jewish school in Gura Humorului, Romania, with the help of Rachel Hasenfratz.
The series is in participation with A.M.I.R. Organization, Romanian Cultural Institute in Tel Aviv, the Wilhelm Filderman Centre for the Study of Jewish History in Romania, the Elie Wiesel National Institute for Studying the Holocaust in Romania, Classrooms Without Borders, Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, and the Rabin Chair Forum at George Washington University.
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In Conversation with Providence Nkurunziza
2024-06-24 19:00 - 20:00 | Online
Join us for a webinar in honour of the 100 Days of Commemoration of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
Providence Nkurunziza is an author, speaker, an advocate for women and children, and a Commissioner at the Texas Holocaust Genocide and Antisemitism Advisory Commission. Five of her siblings and her parents, along with the rest of her extended family members were murdered during the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi in Rwanda in a span of about 100 days. She was only 11. She published her story in her memoir, Next Couple Hours. As a survivor, Providence considers it her responsibility to bear witness to the atrocities of genocide. She wants to save the next generation from falling into the same trap of experiencing such sinister events, as nobody is immune to genocide. She considers it a privilege to share the stories of the well lived lives of her entire family, as well as all those families, who were completely wiped out with no one to remember them. She does all with a thankful heart to preserve their memory and restore their values. She believes silence is complicity in the face of such atrocities and terror. As an advocate, she is also proud to be a voice for women survivors living with HIV/AIDS and other long-term illnesses contracted through rape and other violence during the genocide. Providence has spoken at the United Nations Headquarters in Geneva, New York, and Vienna, the Swedish parliament, three of the four Holocaust museums in Texas, Universities, Holocaust centres and Synagogues in New Jersey and New York. She was recently one of the 4 honourees at the Wagner College for leadership in Holocaust, Genocide and Anti Bias Education for the 81st anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the 30th Genocide against Tutsi in Rwanda. She is attending an intensive program on fighting antisemitism in Oxford, UK starting in July 2024.
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Holocaust Public Memory in Post-Communist Romania
2024-06-30 20:00 - 21:30 | Online
Join us for a webinar on Holocaust Public Memory in Post-Communist Romania, the fifth and final programme in our series the Romanian Jewry during the Holocaust: Filling in the Gaps
Our first speaker, Dr. Ana Bărbulescu, will introduce our audience to the inconsistency that characterises the public memory of the Holocaust within the Romanian society, focusing on why the Romanian society has difficulties acknowledging the Holocaust of the Romanian Jews. As the founder of the transnational platform, Olga Stefan, the second speaker, will discuss the mission and activities of the platform, the research and documentaries undertaken and produced, and what the future might hold as so many countries in the West slide to the right. Our final speaker is Anat Bratman-Elhalel, Director of the Ghetto Fighters’ House Archives. She will discuss the transcription project of audio and video testimonies that have been collected over the years. This project represents a significant step in making these valuable materials accessible to the public. Included in these testimonies are accounts from survivors from Romania. The lecture will disclose these testimonies.
There will be an exclusive screening of Olga Stefan’s film Gestures of Resistance. This documentary connects the personal testimonies of some of the last survivors of the Holocaust from Romania, Czech Republic and Slovakia through their presentations of antifascist resistance and their relevance in today’s society. A link to watch the documentary will be sent to registrants close to the date of the webinar.
The series is in collaboration with A.M.I.R. Organisation, Romanian Cultural Institute in Tel Aviv, the Wilhelm Filderman Centre for the Study of Jewish History in Romania, the Elie Wiesel National Institute for Studying the Holocaust in Romania, Classrooms Without Borders, Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, and the Rabin Chair Forum at George Washington University.
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The Peak of Murder at Auschwitz: 80th Anniversary of the Deportations of Jews from Hungary
2024-07-04 19:00 - 20:30 | Online
Join the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre for a webinar with Paweł Sawicki from the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
The Peak of Murder at Auschwitz: 80th Anniversary of the Deportations of Jews from Hungary

This webinar will explore how during eight weeks of 1944, some 420,000 Jews from Hungary – men, women, and children – were deported to Auschwitz. The estimation is that 75 percent of them were murdered in gas chambers immediately after arrival selections. This means that the daily average number of victims was close to 6,000. This was the largest killing operation conducted by Nazi Germany at Auschwitz. The presentation will focus on the unique set of photographs that the perpetrators took to document the logistics of this horrifying action.
Paweł Sawicki is a press officer at 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. He is also 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. He co-authors of the “On Auschwitz” podcast and authored 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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Museums and Memorials as Healing Spaces with Prof Carla Sofka
2024-07-16 17:00 - 18:00 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
Based on observations and experiences as a volunteer with 9/11 artefacts and research conducted at various museums and memorials related to historic events involving tragedy, this presentation will describe how these spaces serve as a resource for healing and public death education.The motives of individuals who volunteer in these spaces will be explored, potential benefits of their participation will be identified, and challenges inherent in the creation and maintenance of these healing spaces will be discussed.

Carla Sofka, PhD, MSW, is a Professor of Social Work at Siena College in Loudonville, NY (USA). As a result of volunteer work at the NYS Museum with 9/11 artefacts and subsequent research at various museum in the US and several other countries, she has studied how museums and memorials related to tragedy serve as healing spaces and sites for public death education. Her thanatology-related research and writing has focused on digital immortality and the role of thanatechnology (all types of technology, including digital and social media) in coping with illness, death/dying, and grief, including survivor advocacy.

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Reconciliation & Remembrance: Restoring the Kutno Jewish Cemetery
2024-07-17 19:00 - 20:30 | Online
Join us for a compelling webinar on the restoration of the Jewish cemetery in Kutno, Poland.
Totally destroyed by the Nazis during World War II and subsequently misused, this sacred site is now undergoing a profound transformation. Led by a dedicated group of activists from South Africa, Israel, and Poland, all with deep ties to Kutno, this restoration project symbolizes a powerful journey of remembrance, reconciliation, and resilience. The panelists: Yosef Kutner (Israel), Luc Albinski (South Africa), Zigniew Wdowiak (Poland) will share their perspectives, insights, and personal connections to this restoration effort.
Don’t miss this opportunity to learn about the profound impact of restoring heritage and fostering understanding across borders.
17 July at 7pm SAST
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Diplomatic and International Law Mechanisms in Mass Atrocity and Genocide Prevention
2024-07-24 19:00 - 20:30 | Online
Join the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre for a webinar on Diplomatic and International Law Mechanisms in Mass Atrocity and Genocide Prevention.
As the modern world continues to face gross human rights violations, it is important to confront the roots and history of these conflicts and explore how the international community works to them. Guest speakers, Ambassador (ret) Edward O’Donnell and Ambassador David Scheffer will discuss the duality of soft diplomacy and international law mechanisms in the prevention of mass atrocities and genocide, and reflect on the past to invigorate the future.

Ambassador O’Donnell is a Co-Founder of the ASU Lab for Leadership,
Diplomacy and National Security and is a Professor of Practice in the School of
Politics and Global Studies and the Barrett Honors College. He teaches in the
Master of Arts program courses such as: Diplomacy in Action, the Embassy
Country Team, International Negotiations, Diplomacy, Human Rights and
Preventing Genocide, The Holocaust and World War II and International
Economics.
He is on the Board of the Genocide Awareness Week (2025) at ASU.
Ambassador O’Donnell retired from the career U.S. Foreign Service in 2018,
after 33 years in Latin America, German-speaking Europe and other positions
in Washington, D.C. He served in Germany, Austria, Panama, Colombia and
Paraguay, as Charge, Deputy Chief of Mission, Consul General (Principal
Officer), Economic Counselor and Commercial Attaché. In Washington D.C.,
He was a negotiating Ambassador concentrating on Holocaust issues, a
Democratic Charter for the Americas and civil aviation rights. He was
Executive Assistant to three Under Secretaries and Special Assistant, U.S. State
Department Policy Planning Staff.
O’Donnell served in the active U.S. Army Reserve for 30 years with tours in
Germany, Panama and the United States. A Foreign Area Officer in Europe
and Latin America, he commanded two Military Intelligence Detachments as
Colonel.
Since retirement from the State Department, he was Senior Strategy Advisor
to the Assistant Secretary for Diplomatic Security (2014-2018), Senior
Mentor/Advisor to the Afghanistan Government Minister of Counter Narcotics
in Kabul (2011-2014) and State Department inspector (2010 – 2011) in the Middle
East Regional Office of the Inspector General. From 2009 – 2011 he was Acting
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Congressional Relations Bureau
and earlier managed the State Department Liaison Office to the House of
Representatives.

David J. Scheffer joined the School of Politics & Global Studies in 2021 as a Professor. He is also
a Senior Fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations (Washington office).
From 2006 through 2020 Professor Scheffer was the Mayer Brown/Robert A.
Helman Professor of Law at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law and
is Director Emeritus of the Center for International Human Rights there. He was
the Tom A. Bernstein Genocide Prevention Fellow at the U.S. Holocaust
Memorial Museum (2019-2021) and the International Francqui Professor at
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium (2022). From 2012 to 2018 he was the
U.N. Secretary-General’s Special Expert on U.N. Assistance to the Khmer Rouge
Trials. Professor Scheffer was the first U.S. Ambassador at Large for War Crimes
Issues (1997-2001) and led the U.S. delegation to the U.N. talks establishing the
International Criminal Court. He negotiated the creation of five war crimes
tribunals and chaired the Atrocities Prevention Inter-Agency Working Group
(1998-2001). He served on the Deputies Committee of the National Security
Council and as Senior Adviser and Counsel to Dr. Madeleine Albright, the U.S.
Permanent Representative to the United Nations, from 1993-1996. His latest two
books are “All the Missing Souls: A Personal History of the War Crimes Tribunals”
(Princeton 2012) and “The Sit Room: In the Theater of War and Peace” (Oxford
2019).
Professor Scheffer has worked in an international law firm, the Committee on
Foreign Affairs of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Carnegie Endowment
for International Peace, the U.S. Institute of Peace, and the U.N. Association of
the U.S.A., and he has held visiting professorships at several law schools. He was
an International Affairs Fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations in 1986-87.
Professor Scheffer received the Berlin Prize in 2013, the Champion of Justice
Award of the Center for Justice and Accountability in 2018, and the 2020 Dr.
Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award, Global Leadership Institute, Tufts
University. Foreign Policy magazine selected him as a “Top Global Thinker of
2011.” He is a member of the New York, District of Columbia, and Supreme Court
bars and is a native of Norman, Oklahoma.

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Closed members only event: In Conversation with Dr Stephen D. Smith
2024-07-30 14:30 - 15:30 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
Join the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre for an exclusive volunteer and member’s only event:
In Conversation with Dr. Stephen D. Smith is a speaker, scholar, author, and creative who has dedicated his career to preserving the memories of Holocaust and genocide survivors through innovative technologies. He is a co-founder of the Aegis Trust and was project director during the development of the Kigali Genocide Memorial.
Dr. Smith’s expertise in oral history and his theological background have uniquely positioned him to document and share the stories of those who witnessed the atrocities of the Holocaust and other genocides. His ground-breaking work with Dimensions in Testimony has garnered global recognition. As the Executive Director Emeritus of USC Shoah Foundation, Dr. Smith has played a crucial role in preserving invaluable testimonies for future generations.
RSVP to shirley@jhbholocaust.co.za

"The Son of a Survivor": Luc Albinski in conversation with Rob Katz
2024-08-12 18:45 - 19:30 | The Base, 32 Sunny Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2192, South Africa
The JHGC in partnership with the BASE presents Luc Albinski in conversation with Rob Katz:
“The Son of a Survivor”
The story and perspective of the son of Warsaw ghetto survivor Wanda Albinski and grandson of Dr. Halina Rotstein, murdered in Treblinka.
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Opening Concert of the Still Searching for Memory and Justice Conference
2024-08-14 16:30 - 19:00 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
Join us for the opening concert of the Still Searching for Memory and Justice Conference featuring a variety of performances commemorating and celebrating through music from South Africa, Rwanda, and the Holocaust. Artists include Leigh Nudelman, Music is a Great Investment trio (MIAGI), Adriana Altaras, Music for Humanity Collaboration directed by Jazz Against Apartheid, Prince Umana Niwenshuti and Dr Sharon de Kock.
16:30 – 19:00
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Still Searching for Memory and Justice Conference
2024-08-14 16:30 - 2024-08-16 17:00 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
In 1998, the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, together with Yale’s Schell Center for International Human Rights, held an international conference titled Searching for Memory and Justice, a groundbreaking effort to examine the commonalities and differences between the work of Truth and Reconciliation Commissions in South Africa and efforts to document witnesses of the Holocaust.
Now, 30 years after the end of Apartheid, and 45 years since Fortunoff Archive recorded its first testimony, the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre and the Fortunoff Archive are inviting scholars and activists to revisit these topics and more in a series of panels, screenings, concerts and an accompanying exhibit. Speakers include Prof Shirli Gilbert, Prof David Simon, Konstanty Gebert, Prof William Gumede, and many more. The event will also solemnly mark 30 years since the end of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda with a keynote by Carl Wilkens.
All conference events will be free, open to the public and held at the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre. A detailed programme will be available on registration.
Join us in deepening our understanding of memory culture, justice, and the key role of testimonies in documenting mass atrocities.
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