The Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre

Members only walkabout of Eva’s Story: The Promise (closed event)
2023-06-04 15:00 - 17:00 UTC | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
The Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre invites you to an exclusive walkabout of our returning temporary exhibition Eva’s Story: The Promise led by JHGC Founder and Director, Tali Nates, with video testimony by Eva Schloss.
You are invited to explore the story of Holocaust survivor Eva Schloss and her brother Heinz and his artwork. Born in Vienna in 1929, Eva’s family fled after the Anschluss to Holland and after it too was occupied, went into hiding. During his time in hiding, Heinz quelled his fears by writing poetry and painting. They were all betrayed and deported to Auschwitz. Eva and her mother survived but her father and brother were killed just weeks before liberation.
Please note that this event is only open to JHGC Members, contact Shirley Sapire on shirley@jhbholocaust.co.za before the event to find out more about membership.
RSVP to shirley@jhbholocaust.co.za

Ethics and Education as Practices of Freedom with Professor Pedro Tabensky
2023-06-06 18:30 - 20:00 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
Adolf Eichmann was a good careerist and a terrible human being. He understood what was demanded of him to succeed professionally in his time. But as Hannah Arendt famously put it in her report on his trial in Jerusalem, he was thoughtless; the inner dialogue central to agential existence was largely absent from his life. Had he been born today, he may have become a successful CEO, banker, politician, or whatnot.
I will argue that mainstream educational institutions globally, and South Africa is no exception, are fostering the mass production of potential mini-Eichmanns. Why so? Because they are, for the most part, training individuals to cater to the needs of the status quo thoughtlessly. We must reconsider what it means to be truly educated. Following John Dewey and others, I will argue that education is the practice of freedom. Eichmann may have been good at making the trains run on time, but he lived a machine-like existence, lacking the reflective capacities that make us truly human.
Pedro Tabensky was born in Santiago, Chile, to refugee parents. His mother is a Holocaust survivor born in Hungary two weeks before the final stage of the final solution. His father, of Polish Jewish ancestry, is a refugee of the Chinese revolution. He has lived a peripatetic life since the age of three, ending up in South Africa in 2001 and meeting his wife, with whom he has two children. Tabensky is the founding director of the Allan Gray Centre for Leadership Ethics (AGLE), Department of Philosophy, Rhodes University (South Africa). He is the author of Happiness: Personhood, Community, Purpose and of several articles and book chapters. Tabensky is also the editor of and contributor to Judging and Understanding: Essays on Free Will, Narrative, Meaning and the Ethical Limits of Condemnation; The Positive Function of Evil; and, coedited with Sally Matthews (his wife), Being at Home: Race, Institutional Culture and Transformation at South African Higher Education Institutions. He has a book, published in 2023 by Routledge, titled Fanon and Camus on the Algerian Question: An Ethics of Rebellion, and is commencing work on another book provisionally titled Ethics and Education as Practices of Freedom coming out with Lexington, probably in 2026.
RSVP: dowi@jhbholocaust.co.za

Uncovering Memory - Book Launch
2023-06-11 12:00 - 14:00 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
Uncovering Memory: Filming in South Africa, Germany, Poland and Bosnia/Herzegovina
How can we remember events that we have not experienced but are somehow intertwined in our DNA? How can we go back to actual places of memory and engage with the act of remembering? How can we make the invisible memory that is locked in space and place visible? Hence the tool, the camera. How can we use a still or moving image to translate our experiences, emotions and interactions with the past?
Uncovering Memory is about the role of film in memory and remembering, and how to uncover memories. It takes you on a journey of interactions with historical, political, cultural and personal memory.
Tanja Sakota is an artistic researcher, writer, filmmaker and Associate Professor at the School of Arts, Film and Television Department, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
Terry Kurgan is an artist and a writer based in Johannesburg. Her book, Everyone is Present, was shortlisted for the Photo Arles Book Prize (in France, 2019), selected as a Finalist for the National Jewish Book Awards (New York, 2019) and won South Africa’s premier non-fiction literary prize, the Sunday Times Alan Paton Award (2019).
RSVP to dowi@jhbholocaust.co.za

German Professionals and the Holocaust with Dr. William Frederick Meinecke Jr.
2023-06-15 20:00 - 21:30 | Online
5th programme in the series ‘The Holocaust as an Interdisciplinary Tapestry’:
German Professionals and the Holocaust with Dr. William Frederick Meinecke Jr.
“The Holocaust as an Interdisciplinary Tapestry” is an 8-part series that will engage with scholars and experts who grapple with themes related to Holocaust studies. The series will explore the multifaceted discipline of Holocaust Studies through different lenses. Our experts will challenge us to understand the causes, impacts, and legacies of the Holocaust.
The most significant perpetrators of the crimes committed during the Holocaust are well known: Hitler, Himmler, and Heydrich, as well as the SS, among others. But less known are the contributions of “ordinary” people—doctors, lawyers, teachers, civil servants, officers, and other professionals throughout German society—whose individual actions, when taken together, resulted in dire consequences. Put simply, the Holocaust could not have happened without them. This programme will explore the motives and contribution of ordinary German professionals and their contribution to the Nazi racial agenda and to Nazi crimes.
William Frederick Meinecke Jr holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Maryland at College Park. The title of his dissertation was, Conflicting Loyalties: The Supreme Court in Weimar and Nazi Germany 1918-1945. In 1992, he joined the staff of the Wexner Learning Centre of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC, working on a number of programmes and books. In June 2000 he joined the staff of Museum’s Education Division. For the last twenty years Meinecke Jr has worked with law enforcement officers, judges, prosecutors and attorneys in the Law Enforcement and Society: Lessons of the Holocaust training programme. He is currently working in the Museum’s Levine Institute for Holocaust Education on programming for the Initiative on the Holocaust and Professional Leadership.
This programme is in partnership with Classrooms Without Borders, Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, the Ghetto Fighters’ House, Generations of the Shoah, and Liberation75.
Register Here.

International Day Countering Hate Speech
2023-06-21 09:00 - 12:00 | Apartheid Museum, South Africa
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Wartime Commemoration of the Iasi Pogrom
2023-06-25 20:00 - 21:30 | Online
Wartime Commemoration of the Iasi Pogrom: Yitzhak Benditer’s Synagogue Memorial Plaques and The Iasi Pogrom
One of the Most Brutal Chapters in the History of Romanian Jewry during the Holocaust
With H.E. Dr. Radu Ioanid, Ambassador of Romania in the State of Israel, Greta Barak, Ghetto Fighters House, and Lyonell Fliss, Holocaust child survivor of the Iasi pogrom.
The first programme in this series will focus on the pogrom of Iasi that took place on June 29, 1941. Greta Barak from the Ghetto Fighters’ House will present a memorial tablet from the museum’s archive that commemorates the names of the worshippers at one of the synagogues in Iasi (Jassy) who were massacred in the pogrom that took place there.
Dr. Radu Ioanid, Ambassador of Romania in the State of Israel, will give a presentation on why the Holocaust in Eastern Europe is still a forgotten one, including the pogrom in Iasi. As he will show, this pogrom was a major outbreak of violent anti-semitism, yet it was neither isolated nor fortuitous; rather, it was part of a long series of mass murders committed by Romanian fascists. The pogrom was organized by the SSI (the Romanian Intelligence Service) in co-ordination with the General Staff of the Romanian Army. At least 6,000 Jews were murdered in the town of Iasi and another 2,600 perished in two death trains. The perpetrators were Romanian soldiers, gendarmes and police mobs from Iasi, and German soldiers. The Iasi pogrom was followed by the systematic deportation and extermination of the Jews from Bessarabia and Bukovina, and by the extermination of Ukrainian Jews from Transnistria.
The programme will conclude with the personal testimony of Lyonell Fliss, a Holocaust survivor who lives in Johannesburg today. He was 6 years old at the time of the pogrom in Iasi. His relatives were murdered there and on the death trains. Last year, he received the highest medal of honour from the Romanian government.
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.

Curating and Graphic Novels
2023-06-26 13:00 - 15:00 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
Curating and Graphic Novels:
Using approachable media in curating forced labour and the Holocaust with Professor Ruth Leiserowitz
The Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre and the German Historical Institute in Warsaw invite you to a talk by Professor Ruth Leiserowitz where she will explore the curation of the new Jewish Museum in the Kaliningrad Synagogue’s permanent exhibition. This will include examples of how the events of forced labour and the Holocaust could be transposed understandably through media such as graphic novels.
Professor Ruth Leiserowitz is Deputy Director at the German Historical Institute in Warsaw and professor for East European History at the Humboldt University, Berlin. She is also the curator of the permanent exhibition in the new Jewish Museum in the Kaliningrad Synagogue.
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Critical Approaches to Genocide: History, Politics, and Aesthetics of 1915
2023-06-27 19:00 - 21:00 | Online
Book Discussion: Critical Approaches to Genocide: History, Politics, and Aesthetics of 1915
Critical Approaches to Genocide: History, Politics, and Aesthetics of 1915 brings together the multifarious publications of the scholars in the network “Workshop of Armenian-Turkish Scholarship (WATS)”.
The book will be published in August and the following book discussion will be significant in contextualising the book within contemporary debates in memory, trauma and genocide studies.
Moderator:
Tali Nates is the Director/ Founder of the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre and chair of the South African Holocaust & Genocide Foundation (SAHGF).
Presenters:
Elyse Semerdjian is currently Professor of History at Whitman College and the incoming Kaloosdian-Mugar Chair of Armenian Genocide Studies at the Strassler Centre for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark University.
Elisa Von Joeden-Forgey is an Associate Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Keene State College and the Co-President of the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention.
Andrea Petö is a Professor in Gender Studies at the Central European University and a Doctor of Sciences of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Hülya Adak is an Associate Professor of Gender Studies and Comparative Literature at Sabancı University and works on trauma and memory studies.
Fatma Müge Göçek who was born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey is a professor of sociology at the University of Michigan where she works on violence and social change in the Middle East and the world at large.
Arlene Avakian is Professor Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and author of Lion Woman’s Legacy: An Armenian American Memoir among other publications.
David Kazanjian is a Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Pennsylvania.
Egemen Özbek is the Academic Coordinator at the Academy in Exile at Universität Duisburg-Essen.
Deanna Cachoian-Schanz is a PhD candidate in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory at the University of Pennsylvania.

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Live stream and Q&A with Holocaust survivor Pinchas Gutter
2023-07-26 19:30 - 21:00 | Gauteng
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Exhibition Opening: I See Something You Don’t See
2023-08-07 17:00 - 19:00 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
RSVP essential to dowi@jhbholocaust.co.za

Being at Double Risk: Women's Survival in the Holocaust
2023-08-10 18:00 - 20:00 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
RSVP is essential to dowi@jhbholocaust.co.za

Fundraising performance of 'Do I Win or Do I Lose?' at the Theatre on the Square
2023-08-13 14:45 - 17:00 | Gauteng
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The Demjanjuk Affair in Israel: Remember to Forget
2023-08-29 17:30 - 19:00 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
The Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre and the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung invite you to a seminar by Dr Tamir Hod on the Demjanjuk affair of the 1980s and 1990s. Dr Hod will explore the trial and eventual acquittal of Ukrainian-American John Ivan Demanjuk. Demanjuk was extradited to Israel on suspicion of being “Ivan the Terrible” a notorious concentration camp guard at Treblinka.
Dr. Tamir Hod is a historian in the field of World War II and the Holocaust, as well as the impact of Holocaust remembrance on Israeli society. His doctoral thesis was about the Demjanjuk trial in Israel, under the guidance of Prof. Hanna Yablonka, which was also the title of his first book. Dr. Hod researched the role the Ukrainian collaborators played in the Treblinka extermination camp. At the moment, Tamir is working on a book about the Nazi Crimes Investigations Unit in the Israeli Police. The unit, which was founded in 1960, was mainly comprised of Holocaust survivors and contributed greatly to various trials against Nazi criminals and their collaborators in many countries around the world. Dr. Tamir Hod teaches at the Tel Hai Academic College and at the Western Galilee Academic College.
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Opening of Chayela Rosenthal: Wunderkind of the Vilna Ghetto Theatre
2023-09-19 17:00 - 20:00 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
Opening of Chayela Rosenthal: Wunderkind of the Vilna Ghetto Theatre accompanied by a film screening of The Paper Brigade. Members only walkabout at 5pm, Opening and film screening at 6 for 6:30pm.
Please join us for the opening of Chayela Rosenthal: Wunderkind of the Vilna Ghetto Theatre, which focuses on Chayela Rosenthal, a remarkable talented performer who was one of the few survivors of the Vilna Ghetto. Known as the “Wunderkind of the Vilna Ghetto,” Chayela survived the labour and concentration camps and a death march to the Baltic Sea. After liberation, she joined the State Yiddish Theatre and gained recognition, eventually performing in major European capitals and settling in Cape Town.
The opening will be accompanied by a film screening of The Paper Brigade, an award-winning Belgian documentary which tells the moving story of the resistance group “The Paper Brigade”, a group of Jewish writers, scholars, and librarians who desperately tried to rescue Jewish cultural treasures in Vilnius during the Nazi occupation.
RSVP for the walkabout or become a member at dowi@jhbholocaust.co.za
RSVP for the opening to pretoria@diplobel.fed.be

Jewish Studies and the Holocaust
2023-09-21 20:00 - 22:00 | Online
The Holocaust as an Interdisciplinary Tapestry, 6th programme: Jewish Studies and the Holocaust
“The Holocaust as an Interdisciplinary Tapestry” is an 8 part series that will engage with scholars and experts who grapple with themes related to Holocaust studies. The series will explore the multifaceted discipline of Holocaust Studies through different lenses. Our experts will challenge us to understand the causes, impacts, and legacies of the Holocaust.
The sixth lecture in this series focuses on Jewish Studies and the Holocaust. Presenting will be Prof Shirli Gilbert, the director of the Sir Martin Gilbert Learning Centre, a professor of Modern Jewish History at University College London, and the co-editor of Jewish Historical Studies. She holds a 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. Her research focuses on the Holocaust and its legacies, modern Jewish identity, and Jews in South Africa.
Joining Prof Gilbert is Prof Adam Mendelsohn, director of the Kaplan Centre for Jewish Studies and Research at the University of Cape Town, and Associate Professor of History at the University of Cape Town. The Centre, the only of its kind in Africa, conducts research focused on Jews in southern Africa, past and present.
The final presenter is Prof Yael Siman, associate professor, academic coordinator of the graduate program in social and political sciences at the Iberoamerican University in Mexico City. She has a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago. She is a member of the Mexican National Council of Science and an affiliated researcher of the Centre for Advanced Genocide Research. She has investigated the displacement and migration trajectories of Holocaust survivors who immigrated to Mexico.
This programme is in partnership with Classrooms Without Borders, Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, the Ghetto Fighters’ House, Generations of the Shoah, and Liberation75.
Register here: https://cwbpgh.org/event/the-holocaust-as-an-interdisciplinary-tapestry-7/

Vatengesi – Hannah’s Dance
2023-10-10 18:30 - 20:00 | Goethe-Institut, 119 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parkwood, South Africa
This dance performance uses the story of Hannah’s Dance and the Kulturbund’s plan to save Jewish dancers during World War II as a starting point explore contemporary issues in Zimbabwe and South Africa. Movement, mask work, song, poetry and metaphors come together to create a magical piece of ritual theatre exploring healing from political trauma.
RSVP: https://forms.gle/2TTmAirEsDNenm6s6

Nation Takes Action: Commemorating the 80th Anniversary of the Rescue of the Jews in Denmark During the Holocaust
2023-10-15 20:00 - 22:00 | Online
We are honoured to have the Ambassador of Denmark, H.E. Thomas Winkler to open this special commemoration programme about a most incredible act of rescue. Almost all of the seven thousand Jews living in Nazi occupied Denmark, managed to escape the Holocaust. What made Denmark the exception to the systemised horror? Bo Lidegaard, a historian who has researched the subject, presents a new explanation of the rescue based on more than ten years of historical research. Dr. Judith Goldstein, Founder and Executive Director Emeritus of ”Humanity in Action”,will introduce us to the work of the non-profit organisation, including the production of the animated documentary ”Voices in the Void”, which is part of the film series Traces: Portraits of Resistance, Survival and Resolve. We will have the opportunity to see a screening of the film during the programme. Afterwards, Rabbi Jair Melchior, Chief Rabbi of Denmark, will share the story of his grandfather, Rabbi Bent Melchior z’l, who was rescued on one of the boats to Sweden, and enlighten us about Denmark and the Danish society today, in relation to the moral lessons and insights gained by learning about this unique example of rescue during the Holocaust.
This programme is in partnership with the Embassy of Denmark in Tel Aviv, Humanity in Action, the Danish Jewish Museum, the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, Classrooms without Borders, and the Rabin Chair Forum at George Washington University.
Register Here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUrduyrrDgsG9enoLgn2AxpwcpxWowsNJcQ

Gendering the Holocaust with Prof Andrea Pető
2023-10-26 20:00 - 22:00 | Online
“The Holocaust as an Interdisciplinary Tapestry” is an 8 part series that will engage with scholars and experts who grapple with themes related to Holocaust studies. The series will explore the multifaceted discipline of Holocaust Studies through different lenses. Our experts will challenge us to understand the causes, impacts, and legacies of the Holocaust.
The seventh lecture in this series focuses on women and the Holocaust. Research on women and the Holocaust developed driven by the political strategy formulated by Joan Ringelheim in 1983 that in failing to recognise that men and women suffer differently we “lose the lives of women for a second time”. Andrea Pető analyses the consequences that the scholarship on women and the Holocaust followed the same epistemological route as women’s history writing in general. It started to collect the facts – making women visible and collecting evidence – and establish the history of women’s participation in, for example, the ghetto and among the Jewish resistance movements building up a considerable scholarship by now. The talk closes by analysing the causes and actors of the recent illiberal challenge on Holocaust Studies and its consequences on gendering the Holocaust. She will also explore the causes and actors of the recent illiberal challenge on Holocaust Studies and its consequences on gendering the Holocaust.
This programme is in partnership with Classrooms Without Borders, Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, the Ghetto Fighters’ House, Generations of the Shoah, and Liberation75.
Andrea Pető is Professor in the Department of Gender Studies at Central European University, Vienna, Austria, and a Doctor of Science of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Her works on gender, politics, Holocaust and war have been translated into 23 languages. She edited three pioneering books in the field of Jewish Studies with Louise Hecht, Karoline Krasuska Women and Holocaust: New Perspectives and Challenges. IBL, Warsawa, 2015., and with Szapor, Judith, Hametz, Maura, Calloni, Marina, Jewish Intellectual Women in Central Europe 1860-2000. The Edwin Mellen Press, 2012., with Helga Thorson The Future of Holocaust Memorialisation. Confronting Racism, Anti-Semitism, and Homophobia Through Memory Work. Tom Lantos Institute, Budapest, 2015. Her recent monographs are: Women in the Arrow Cross Party (Palgrave, 2020), Forgotten Massacre, Budapest in 1944 (DeGruyter 2021). She the editor-in-chief of East European Holocaust Studies (DeGruyter). In 2018 she was awarded the 2018 All European Academies (ALLEA) Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values and 2022 University of Oslo Human Rights Award. She is Doctor Honoris Causa of Södertörn University, Stockholm, Sweden.
Register Here: https://cwbpgh.org/event/the-holocaust-as-an-interdisciplinary-tapestry-8/

From Darkness to Freedom: Honouring the 80th Anniversary of the Courageous Tunnel Escape from the Novogrudok Ghetto
2023-10-29 20:00 - 22:00 | Online
On September 26, 1943 about 230 Jews accomplished a daring escape from the Novogrudok (Navardok) labor 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 less known escape.
Lady Gilbert give the opening remarks. Afterwards, Dr. Silberklang will present the broader picture of Jewish resistance in the ghettos. 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. Tamara Vershitskaya, founder of the Jewish Resistance Museum in Novogrudok, will take us on a virtual tour of the exhibition. 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. Our program will conclude with a special commemoration in honour of all those who were involved in the escape.
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 Organization, Jewish Religious Union (Belarus), Jewish History Association of South Wales/Cymdeithas Hanes Iddewig De Cymru, Classrooms Without Borders, Rabin Chair Forum, and the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre.
Register Here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMkc-yurjktHdZtIKssgd8K4THtnEQ5TRSb

Museums and Memorials with Dr Mirjam Zadoff
2023-11-16 21:00 - 23:00 | Online
Holocaust as an Interdisciplinary Tapestry series: Memory Studies: Museums and Memorials with Dr Mirjam Zadoff
“The Holocaust as an Interdisciplinary Tapestry” is an 8 part series that engages with scholars and experts who grapple with themes related to Holocaust studies. The series explores the multifaceted discipline of Holocaust Studies through different lenses. Our experts challenge us to understand the causes, impacts, and legacies of the Holocaust.
The final lecture in the series looks at memory studies focusing on museums and memorials. Dr Mirjam Zadoff, the Director of the Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism, and lecturer at the University of Munich, will explore the relationship between memory studies and the Holocaust.
This programme is in partnership with Classrooms Without Borders, the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, the Ghetto Fighters’ House, Generations of the Shoah, and Liberation75.
Register here: https://cwbpgh.org/event/the-holocaust-as-an-interdisciplinary-tapestry-9/

Commemorating the Iasi Pogrom: Lessons and Remembrance 82 years later
2023-11-19 15:00 - 17:00 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
You are invited to a special commemoration of the June 1941 lasi Pogrom. The programme will feature testimony by lasi pogrom survivor, Lyonell Fliss, as well as a conversation with HE. Mrs Monica Sitaru, Ambassador of Romania to South Africa, Mr Enrico Brandt, Deputy Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to South Africa, and Founder/Director of the JHGC, Tali Nates.
RSVP here.

A Nation Takes Action: Commemorating the 80th Anniversary of the Rescue of the Jews in Denmark During the Holocaust
2023-11-19 21:00 - 23:00 | Online
“Bridge Over Troubled Water”: Solidarity and Civic Responsibility in Times of Crisis
Session 1: A Nation Takes Action: Commemorating the 80th Anniversary of the Rescue of the Jews in Denmark During the Holocaust
In these turbulent times, we find strength in the bonds we share with our friends as well as in our commitment to a mission of education, sharing inspiring stories of bravery and resilience, and eliminating all forms of hatred. The new Talking Memory series represents our unwavering commitment to maintaining meaningful connections with you, our friends from around the world, with the intention of cultivating a shared sense of unity among us. We believe that this series represents a powerful response to current events, while also serving as a profound testament to the strength of civil society today.
The first session, taking place on November 19, 2023, will feature the following an opening by Ambassador of Denmark to Israel, H.E. Thomas Winkler to open this special commemoration programme about a most incredible act of rescue. Bo Lidegaard, an historian who has researched the subject of the Danish rescue, presents a new explanation of the rescue based on more than ten years of historical research. Dr. Judith Goldstein, Founder and Executive Director Emeritus of ”Humanity in Action”, will introduce us to the work of the non-profit organisation, including the production of the animated documentary “Voices in the Void”, which is part of the film series Traces: Portraits of Resistance, Survival and Resolve. We will have the opportunity to see a screening of the film during the programme. Afterwards, Rabbi Jair Melchior, Chief Rabbi of Denmark, will share the story of his grandfather, Rabbi Bent Melchior who was rescued on one of the fishing boats who sailed to Sweden, in relation to the moral lessons and insights gained by learning about this unique example of rescue during the Holocaust.
This programme is in partnership with the Embassy of Denmark in Tel Aviv, Humanity in Action, the Danish Jewish Museum, the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, Classrooms without Borders, and the Rabin Chair Forum at George Washington University.
Register here.

Book Launch of Comrade King
2023-11-23 18:30 - 20:00 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
Please join Khulu Radebe and Jeff Kelly Lowenstein at the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre for the launch of their book, Comrade King, which will include a conversation between Khulu Radebe will be in conversation with Jeff Kelly Lowenstein.
At age 50, and proving a prophet’s prediction correct, Khulu Radebe learned about his royal roots. He was informed that he was the ruler of the AmaHlubi people of the Embo Nation, a nation that stretches along the east coast of Africa. In chronicling his extraordinary life and times in this landmark autobiography, Radebe, in a humane and vivid way, chronicles the revolutionary path for freedom in South Africa. Alexandra Township in Johannesburg is a central character in this book and Radebe reveals an astonishing story of the post-1990 war between Inkatha and the ANC in Alex. Gripping, bold and original, Comrade King, is an unforgettable story. King Bhungane III, born Khulu Radebe, a former activist, Robben Island graduate, and Umkhonto we Sizwe member, now reigns as the King of the Embo Nation.
Jeff Kelly Lowenstein is an accomplished investigative journalist, author, and Executive Director of the Centre for Collaborative Investigative Journalism (CCI)).
RSVP: rsvp@jacana.co.za
Please use Comrade King Launch in the subject line

Book launch of Catastrophic Grief, Trauma and Resilience in Child Concentration Camp Survivors
2023-11-26 10:30 - 12:00 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
This book describes the narratives of child Holocaust survivors and their experiences of complex trauma, complicated bereavement, ageing, resilience and existential loneliness. The work is unique in that it describes the trauma of child Holocaust survivors who were placed in concentration camps. Most children were killed on entry. Child survivors were rare. These survivors went on to build lives with considerable resilience and coping but their trauma remained within for the next 70-75 years. This is a unique view of the impact of catastrophic trauma and grief over a lifespan.
The book is based on the research of Tracey Farber’s PHD research in which she interviewed 9 child Holocaust survivors who were interned in concentration camps. Gill Eagle and Cora Smith were the research supervisors. The authors have added original chapters discussing the relevant research and literature in the field of massive grief, complex trauma and ethics.
The survivors retained vivid recollections of the horror of internment and expressed ongoing grief for the multiple losses they had experienced. Unresolved grief contributed to a sense of existential loneliness, particularly prominent in their late life reflections. Despite indications of resilience and life productivity, a ‘Trauma Trilogy’ of inter-linked catastrophic grief, anger, and survivor guilt contributed to a sense of pain and struggle in negotiating Erikson’s final life task of Integrity versus Despair. By publishing the body of a doctoral thesis in the form of a book the aim was to make the material available to a wide audience. The authors include some practical outcomes that may inform clinical practice, further research, and understanding of the impact of other genocides.
About the Authors:
Tracey Farber worked full time as a clinical psychologist, psychotherapist, supervisor, and trainer in private practice for 24 years in Johannesburg. She specialized in treating traumatized adults, adolescents and children and her work also included also included seeing second generation Holocaust survivors for individual psychotherapy. At present, she works as a clinical psychologist at the Tel Aviv University Psychological Services, Student Success Centre and in private practice in Tel Aviv. She developed a psychoeducational program called “Understanding Trauma and Building Resilience” that was developed from her PhD research. This program has been taught to mental health workers, students, teachers, and parents as well as employees and managers.
Gill Eagle is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of the Witwatersrand. She lectures primarily on the master’s program in Clinical Psychology and is also a core member of the doctoral team overseeing research work. Her research interests lie in the field of psychosocial studies, with a particular focus on traumatic stress and gender and issues. She runs a small private practice, working primarily within a relational psychoanalytic psychotherapy framework.
Cora Smith is Adjunct Professor in the Division of Clinical Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of the Witwatersrand. She also holds a joint appointment post as the Chief Clinical Psychologist at the Child, Adolescent and Family Unit at Johannesburg Hospital. Her interests are in the development of personality pathology through the life cycle with a particular focus on attachment. She has a keen interest in the ethical dilemmas that emerge in clinical practice.

RSVP here.

10th Annual South Africa-Poland-Heritage Conference
2023-11-26 15:00 - 17:00 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
The Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre in collaboration with the Association of Siberian Deportees, Sol Plaatje University, and the Embassy of Poland in South Africa invite you to the 10th South Africa-Poland Heritage Conference: Southern Africa – On the Edges of Polish Identity, with a presentation by Mary Mbewe (Mulungushi University, Zambia) on Memorialisation of Polish Refugees of Northern Rhodesia – Preliminary Findings, and a co-presentation by lan Macqueen (University of Pretoria, South Africa), and Adam Kochajkiewicz (Institute of National Remembrance, Poland) on Patrick Mabinda: The Experience of a South African Exile in Communist Poland, (1977 – c. 1989).
RSVP here.

Sub-Saharan Africans and the Holocaust by Prof Edward Kissi
2023-11-29 18:30 - 20:00 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
The Holocaust was a catastrophe for its direct Jewish victims in Europe. For the non-Jewish and non-European “distant observers” of the Holocaust in sub-Saharan Africa, the Nazi anti-Jewish campaign in Europe had a particular significance. The Speaker, Dr. Edward Kissi, author of Africans and the Holocaust: perceptions and responses of colonized and sovereign peoples, will look at how particular groups of people in East and West Africa obtained and interpreted news reports about the Nazi persecution and attempted destruction of German and other European Jews in the 1930s and early 1940s. The talk focuses on how these groups in sub-Saharan Africa used their indigenous cultures and memories of European colonialism to make moral and analytical judgements about the Holocaust.
Edward Kissi is Associate Professor at the School of Interdisciplinary Global Studies, University of South Florida, and a member of the Africana Studies faculty. Kiss’s research focuses on the post-20th century history of West and East Africa, the comparative history of genocide and human rights, and sub-Saharan African perspectives on the Holocaust. He has published on a wide range of issues including genocide and human rights in Africa, and the prospects and challenges of genocide prevention and global Holocaust and Genocide Education. In 2009, Kissi was invited by the United Nations to write “The Holocaust as a Guidepost for Genocide Detection and Prevention in Africa” for the landmark United Nations’ Discussion Papers Journal. He has since been involved in major national and international activities on Holocaust and Genocide Education, including UNESCO’s on-going initiatives on Holocaust and Genocide Education in Africa. His latest book Africans and the Holocaust (2019) is a pioneering effort to integrate sub-Saharan African perspectives on the Holocaust into Holocaust Studies and incorporate Holocaust content into African history, and Africana Studies. Kissi has also been featured in the new National Geographic documentary Nazis at Nuremberg: The Lost Testimony which made its international debut in December 2022.
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Jazz Against Apartheid: Beyond Exile
2023-12-13 11:00 - 21:00 | Gauteng
Jazz Against Apartheid (JAA) was started in 1986 in Berlin by Jürgen Leinhos, now 85 years old, and his Frankfurt-based initiative “Kultur im Ghetto” (Culture in the Ghetto). The first event included musical specialists from the UK, Switzerland and the EU, particularly Germany, joining together in honouring Johnny with the performance of Dyani compositions. Following Dyani’s passing in exile, the JAA performing collaboration has continued with regular concerts in Europe and the USA. In 2021 President Ramaphosa bestowed the Order of the Companions of O.R. Tambo in silver on Mr Leinhos for his commitment to the JAA programme, for his determined stand against apartheid, and for fighting for the cause of oppressed South Africans as an anti-apartheid activist.
Now in its 38th consecutive year, and its second year performing in South Africa, Jazz Against Apartheid have performed over 100 concerts on three continents and visits Johannesburg for the first time.
The JAA movement is integrated with cultural activism. Every concert features the compositions of Eastern Cape born bass player, composer and ANC member in exile Johnny Mbizo Dyani.
Born in Duncan Village, East London, Johnny Dyani went into exile at the age of 17 with the famous Blue Notes. His globally acknowledged contribution to jazz is remarkable from three perspectives:

his prolific and collaborative career which illustrates the unity in diversity that is achieved through music;
his compositions and albums, that brought international attention to the lives of struggle icons such as Steve Biko, Lillian Ngoyi, and Nelson and Winnie Mandela, and
he demonstrated that the source of jazz was on the African continent.

Sharing the vitality of Dyani’s music to current and future generation, fills the gaps in cultural memory of what artists such as Dyani fought for and achieved abroad. Like those back home in South Africa who were fighting on every front to free themselves from apartheid, thes exiled artists worked in solidarity “for my country, for my people,” as Dyani put it.
The JAA event continues the friendships built in exile, in a kind of “künstlerisch-kultureller Austausch” (artistic-cultural exchange) and is a bridge between geography and history.
This event returns to the Eastern Cape due to the enthusiasm and support of activists and South African living in exile in Germany, Professor Peggy Luswazi and Vusi Macingwane Mchunu. These South Africans in exile enjoyed a direct interaction with the Jazz Against Apartheid project during the many active years of study and work in Berlin, at the peak of the antiapartheid struggle.
The driving force of this cultural exchange is “Nachwuchsförderung,” or the conscious policy and practice of transferring societal values, knowledge and skills to the next generation. As Jürgen Leinhos said recently, noting that South African political apartheid is dead but that the struggle continues: “Overcoming apartheid does not stop once apartheid – being in this case the name and definition of a political system – stops. Since the isolation of political voices and groups that took place not only from the political process, but from education, health care, and other social needs, has not stopped, JAA continues to have legitimacy and a reason to exist.”
At the 13 December event, additionally, the Johnny Dyani Songbook Launch will take place. This anthology of compositions by Johnny Mbizo Dyani is the first such anthology of transcribed compositions from a South African Jazz Composer. It has been hailed as the breakthrough work for bringing local music education into South African educational institutions. The anthology has been produced by Jazz Against Apartheid Collaborations under the authorship of Artistic Director Daniel Guggenheim.

Panel Discussion: 11AM – 1PM
Through engaging with beyond exile, participants will be able to explore the history of exile and resistance in the past as well as in contemporary society and connect to the themes of moral choices, human rights and social activism. We welcome audiences, activists and representatives from schools, universities and professionals to gather at the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre to engage with issues pertaining to South Africa’s identity: its challenges, and the necessary moral compass of a society committed not to repeat the injustices of the past apartheid system in other ways.

Concert: 5PM – 7PM
Artiste listing-
International Musicians: Daniel Guggenheim (saxophone), Christian Lillinger (drums) and Christopher Dell (vibraphone), trumpeter Claude Deppa from UK and Johannesburg based collaborators Lex Futshane (bass) and Tomas Dyani (percussion).
Sponsors: This event has been made possible with support from Germany, (Kultur im Ghetto; Hessian Ministry of Higher Education, Research, Science and the Arts; and the Protestant Church),whose contributions are acknowledged with appreciation.

RSVP to the panel here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeS4apJrwi3cbUmoKv5PhomMnPHwK_MmQnAEpmPnKfIZpNEmg/viewform
Buy tickets for the concert here: https://www.quicket.co.za/events/240357-jazz-against-apartheid-beyond-exile/#/

Under Beslenei’s Sky: A Tale of Courage
2023-12-17 21:00 - 22:30 | Online
In these turbulent times, we find strength in the bonds we share with our friends as well as in our commitment to a mission of education, sharing inspiring stories of bravery and resilience, and eliminating all forms of hatred. The new Talking Memory series represents our unwavering commitment to maintaining meaningful connections with you, our friends from around the world, with the intention of cultivating a shared sense of unity among us. We believe that this series represents a powerful response to current events, while also serving as a profound testament to the strength of civil society today.
For the second programme, we look at the remarkable, unknown heroic story of Beslenei, a small village at the heart of the Caucasus. During the Holocaust, the Circassian-Muslim people of Beslenei adopted orphaned children, some of whom were Jewish, who had fled the siege of Leningrad, putting their entire community at risk. The webinar will feature opening remarks from Yigal Cohen, CEO of the Ghetto Fighters Museum, followed by guest speakers David Shawgen, research director of the Circassian Museum in Kfar-Kama who will provide an overview of Circassian history and culture and focus on the significant events that unfolded in Beslenei during April 1942; Zoher Thawcho, initiator of the film “A Tale from Beslenei” and founder of the Circassian Museum in Kfar-Kama, who will share clips of his film “A Tale from Beslenei” and discuss the production process of the film, and his perspective on the story that came to life during the film’s creation; and Lana Harshuk, a Circassian-Israeli educator at the Anne Frank high school, who will discuss the intersections of her identity and the history of her people, revealing their impact on her educational philosophy, also explaining how hatred is often a result of ignorance, and how she uses this story to encourage empathy and foster respect for others. There will also be a pre-screening of the documentary film, “A Tale from Beslenei” for all registrants.
This programme is in partnership with the Circassian Historical Museum in Israel, the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, Classrooms Without Borders, and the Rabin Chair Forum at George Washington University.
Click here to register.

Post Film Discussion: Resistance: They Fought Back
2024-01-25 22:00 - 23:30 | Online
Join the JHGC, Classrooms without Borders and Ghetto Fighters’ House for a post film discussion on the NEW documentary Resistance: They Fought Back
Join us for this event as we unveil tales of resilience and courage, remembering and reflecting on the indomitable human spirit in the face of adversity.
The Film link will be delivered to registrants 3 days before our engaging post-film discussion
“People have this myth stuck in their heads that Jews went to their deaths like sheep to the slaughter. But this is where the real story begins… Jews did not go as sheep to the slaughter… They fought back.” Professor Richard Freund
We’ve all heard of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, but most people have no idea how widespread and prevalent Jewish resistance to Nazi barbarism was. Instead, it’s widely believed “Jews went to their deaths like sheep to the slaughter.” Filmed in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Israel, and the U.S., Resistance – They Fought Back provides a much-needed corrective to this myth of Jewish passivity. There were uprisings in ghettos large and small, rebellions in death camps, and thousands of Jews fought Nazis in the forests. Everywhere in Eastern Europe, Jews waged campaigns of non-violent resistance against the Nazis.
We were taught that Jews went like sheep to the slaughter.
We were taught a Nazi lie.
The discussion will feature: Paula S. Apsell – Executive Producer, Co-Director
For 33 years, Paula Apsell was the senior executive producer of the PBS NOVA science series. Prior to that, she produced and directed a dozen NOVA episodes, and was a Fellow in the Public Understanding of Science at MIT. During her long tenure at NOVA, Paula was responsible for supervising more than 600 documentaries on a wide variety of subjects in the sciences, and one, The Bible’s Buried Secrets, an exploration of the archaeology of the Hebrew Bible, with partial funding provided by the Righteous Persons Foundation. She also co-directed and executive produced one of the most watched NOVA episodes, Holocaust Escape Tunnel. During her tenure, NOVA won every major broadcasting award, including the Emmy, the Peabody, the duPont-Columbia University Gold and Silver Batons, and an Academy Award nomination for Special Effects. In 2018 she was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Emmy of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
Facilitated by Dr. Michael Berenbaum
Dr. Michael Berenbaum is a writer, lecturer, and teacher consulting in the conceptual development of museums and historical films. He is director of the Sigi Ziering Institute: Exploring the Ethical and Religious Implications of the Holocaust at the American Jewish University, where he is also a Professor of Jewish Studies.
He was the Executive Editor of the Second Edition of the Encyclopedia Judaica that reworked, transformed, improved, broadened and deepened, the now classic 1972 work and consists of 22 volumes, sixteen million words with 25,000 individual contributions to Jewish knowledge. For three years, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation. He was the Director of the United States Holocaust Research Institute at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Hymen Goldman Adjunct Professor of Theology at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. From 1988–93 he served as Project Director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, overseeing its creation. He also served as Deputy Director of the President’s Commission on the Holocaust, where he authored its Report to the President.
Berenbaum is the author and editor of twenty books, scores of scholarly articles, and hundreds of journalistic pieces. His most recent books include: Not Your Father’s Antisemitism, A Promise to Remember: The Holocaust in the Words and Voices of Its Survivors and After the Passion Has Passed: American Religious Consequences, a collection of essays on Jews, Judaism and Christianity, Religious Tolerance and Pluralism occasioned by the controversy that swirled around Mel Gibson’s film, The Passion. He was the conceptual developer on the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Educational Centre and played a similar function as conceptual developer and chief curator of the Belzec Memorial at the site of the Death Camp. He is currently at work on the Memorial Museum to Macedonian Jewry in Skopje, the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum, and the Holocaust and Humanity Centre in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Register here

International Holocaust Remembrance Day Commemoration
2024-01-28 19:00 - 20:30 | Online
The online commemoration will include formal remarks, a panel discussion about the symbolism of Auschwitz with Prof. Adam Mendelsohn, Jakub Nowakowski and Iris Singer, moderated by Mary Klug, with a virtual performance by Zola Shuman.
About the panelists:
Prof. Adam Mendelsohn is the director of the Kaplan Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Cape Town. He is also an associate professor and Head of the Department of Historical Studies. He is the author of Jewish Soldiers in the Civil War: The Union Army (2022) and The Rag Race: How Jews Sewed Their Way to Success in America and the British Empire (2014), and co-editor of Jews and the Civil War: A Reader (with Jonathan D. Sarna, 2010), Transnational Traditions: New Perspectives on American Jewish History (with Ava Kahn, 2014), and Yearning to Breathe Free: Jews in Gilded-Age America (with Jonathan D. Sarna, 2022). He has co-curated exhibitions at the New-York Historical Society, Princeton University Art Museum, and the Centre for Jewish History, and is a former editor of the journal American Jewish History and currently co-editor of Jewish Historical Studies.
Jakub Nowakowski is the director of the Cape Town Holocaust & Genocide Centre. He was born and raised in Kazimierz, the former Jewish district of Kraków. Coming from a non-Jewish family that lived in Kazimierz for generations, from an early age he was compelled to research the history of his neighbourhood. In 2007 he graduated from the Department of Jewish Studies at the Jagiellonian University, writing a thesis on Jewish resistance in Kraków during the Holocaust. In 2005 Nowakowski joined the staff of the newly opened Galicia Jewish Museum in Kraków. Nowakowski served as the director of the Galicia Jewish Museum for 13 year before becoming the director of the CTHGC.
Iris Singer is an Austrian filmmaker and activist who has been telling the story of the Holocaust and survivors of the Holocaust – as well as organising events and tours to remind young people of the importance of history, and the most devastating genocides of the 20th century. She was the producer of Facing Auschwitz, a documentary that follows the journey of four young Austrians on their journey to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
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