The Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre

Mini conference: 80 Years On: Memory, Responsibility, and the Future of Remembrance
2025-08-14 14:00 - 17:30 UTC
Join the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre and its partners for a conference focusing on 80 years since the end of World War II and the Holocaust, highlighting memory, responsibility, and the future of remembrance.

Learn from experts Dr. Jens-Christian Wagner (historian and director of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation), Dr. Yohai Cohen (director of Yad Vashem’s guiding department), Tal Bruttmann (French historian and writer on the Auschwitz Photographs) with participation of Sylt Foundation’s director, Indra Wussow and JHGC’s director, Tali Nates.

The conference will be followed by the opening of More Important than Life: The Underground Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto Exhibition at 6pm.

Dr. Yohai Cohen, current director of Yad Vashem’s guiding department, has worked at Yad Vashem since 2006. He wrote his doctoral thesis in the Department of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on the history of the Holocaust in Yad Vashem exhibitions from the 1950s to the present day. Previously, he worked at Yad Vashem as a museum guide, curator of photographs in the museum, and researcher of photographs in the archive.

Born in 1966, Prof. Dr. Jens-Christian Wagner studied medieval and modern history, geography, and Romance philology in Göttingen and Santiago de Chile (M.A.). He completed his doctorate at the University of Göttingen in 1999 with a thesis on the history of the Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camp. In 2000 he was a guest scholar with the Max Planck Society research project “Geschichte der Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft im NS” (Berlin). He served as director of the Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camp Memorial (Nordhausen) 2001–2014, as executive director of the Lower Saxon Memorials Foundation 2001–2014, and director of the Bergen-Belsen Memorial (Celle) 2014-2020. He has been director of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation since 2020.

Tal Bruttmann is a historian specializing in the Holocaust and antisemitism. His work focuses on antisemitic policies in France during the war, as well as the systematic murder of European Jews and the killing centres. He is notably the author of “Auschwitz” (La Découverte, 2015) and “Les cent mots de la Shoah” with Christophe Tarricone (PUF, 2016), as well as “Microhistories Of The Holocaust” (Berghahn Books, New York, 2016) with Claire Zalc. His latest book, “Un album d’Auschwitz : comment les nazis ont photographié leurs crimes” (Seuil, 2023), written with Stefan Hördler and Christoph Kreutzmüller, is a study dedicated to the photographs taken by the SS at Auschwitz. He also contributed to the script of the graphic novel “Du sang dans la clairière. Mont-Valérien 1941-1944,” alongside historian Antoine Grande and cartoonist Efix.

Exhibition opening: More Important Than Life: The Underground Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto
2025-08-14 18:00 - 20:00
Join the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre for keynotes by Jens-Christian Wagner (Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation), Yohai Cohen (Yad Vashem), Tal Bruttmann (French historian), and ambassadors at the opening of the powerful new temporary exhibition from NSDoku München and the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute with the support of the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland: More Important Than Life: The Underground Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto.

On display for the first time in Africa, the exhibit explores rare images and documents from the hidden archive of the Warsaw Ghetto, known today as the Ringelblum Archive. This collective of academics, writers, and activists worked secretly to document the mass murder of European Jews as it was happening.

The exhibition tells the story of this act of resistance: a never-ending, arduous, harrowing but ultimately successful attempt to write the story of the Holocaust from the perspective of its victims.

Online book discussion on We Share The Same SKy with Rachael Cerrotti
2025-08-21 15:30 - 16:30
Winner of the Maine Literary Award, We Share the Same Sky: A Memoir of Memory & Migration, is a riveting and awe-inspiring book by author and inaugural Storyteller in Residence for USC Shoah Foundation, Rachael Cerrotti. Cerrotti had always known her grandmother Hana was a Holocaust survivor, but what she discovered – an entire archive of her life – after Hana’s passing led to an incredible journey of discovery and self-discovery.

Join us for an online book discussion with Cerrotti as we follow her through a decade-long journey to weave together the thin threads of her family history in this masterpiece of intergenerational storytelling.

Rachael Cerrotti is an award-winning author, educator, curator, and podcaster who works in the field of narrative nonfiction storytelling. Through an interdisciplinary practice, she explores stories rooted in the humanity of grief and inherited memory. Her critically-acclaimed book and podcast, WE SHARE THE SAME SKY, tell the story of her decade-long journey to retrace her grandmother’s wartime history and is an educational resource for teachers worldwide. Rachael was the Inaugural Storyteller in Residence for USC Shoah Foundation and has been a fellow with The Witness Institute and New America. She works with organizations, institutions and individuals on storytelling projects and community programming, and currently produces and hosts ALONG THE SEAM, a conversational podcast about the role of the past in our present day lives. She writes a series of essays on Substack to accompany the podcast as well. Learn more at: www.rachaelcerrotti.com.

Film Screening of Syberiada Polska(Siberian Exile)
2025-08-24 14:30 - 17:00 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
To commemorate Black Ribbon Day, Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism you are invited to a screening of

SYBERIADA POLSKA (SIBERIAN EXILE)

Produced by Mirosław Słowiński over seven long, difficult years this film depicts the fates of Poles deported to Siberia by the Soviet Union during WWII. The film portrays the harsh conditions of the Soviet labour camps (Gulags) and the struggles faced by the deportees, highlighting themes of love, courage, and hope amidst adversity. It was filmed in the majestic and severe Krasnoyarsk region of Siberia, aiming for a realistic portrayal of the era and environment. The film is in Polish with English subtitles.
