Eastern Europe once had one of the world's largest Jewish communities, now among the smallest. Its history reflects vibrant pre-war life, the devastation of war, post-war antisemitism, and emigration. Since the 1970s, descendants have returned, seeking traces of this lost world. This trend grew as Eastern European nations joined the EU, spurring interest in reclaiming […]

Join the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre and the Goethe-Institut Johannesburg for a talk on Colonial Violence, the Holocaust, and Contested Politics of Memory in Germany with Prof Carola Lentz   In which direction should German state policies of memory develop? What is the future of Holocaust remembrance in an increasingly multi-ethnic, post-migrant society and […]

Join the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre and Rosa Luxemberg Foundation for a film screening of Family Treasures Lost & Found   This documentary tracks journalist Karen A. Frenkel investigates her parents’ unspoken WWII stories. She knew little about their lives before and during the Holocaust, but her detective work leads to astonishing revelations of […]

The event is on 25 September at 8pm SAST Join us for the next instalment in the webinar series Lessons in Resilience from the Holocaust and Genocide with Asya Darbinyan   The Remarkable Resilience of the Armenian Genocide Refugees The Armenian genocide—orchestrated and systematically implemented by the Ottoman government against its Armenian subjects under the […]

29 September at 15:00 Join the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre and the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Pretoria for the opening of the new temporary exhibition, The Righteous Among the Nations. The opening will include formal remarks from Ambassador of the Czech Republic to South Africa Ambassador Tomáš Uličný, a presentation by Zuzana […]

14 October 17:30 for 18:00 Join the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre and the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania in South Africa for an evening exploring the life and art of great contemporary artist, Samuel Bak in remembrance of the Holocaust in Lithuania. The event will include formal remarks from ambassador of Lithuania to […]

On September 26, 1943 about 240 Jews accomplished a daring escape from the Novogrudok (Navardok) labour camp in Belarus (White Russia) via an underground tunnel dug by the inmates over a period of several months. In this programme, we will focus on this little-known escape, which, according to research carried out by Dr. Betty Cohen, […]

Monday 28 October, 16:00 Join us for a one-hour workshop focusing on the History of Holocaust Literature, with some examples, and discussion of Dan Jacobson’s novel, Heshel’s Kingdom. Jacobson was a South African writer who wrote about his grandfather’s origins in Lithuania and his own visit to that country to visit sites of mass extermination. […]

Thursday 31 October, 18:00 This talk will explore how at birth we are all handed a bag that someone else packed. We carry it without questions for a long time until about middle age, at which point we have collected so much baggage of our own we begin wondering why this bag is so heavy. […]

WEDNESDAY 6 NOVEMBER 18:00 Join the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre for a special talk by Lorenz Völker, as he shares his personal journey of discovering his late grandfather’s hidden past. Through years of research, Völker also uncovered the legal history of the Third Reich and brought together families of both perpetrators and Jewish victims. […]

SUNDAY 10 NOVEMBER, 2PM (SAST) The Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, the Goethe-Institut, and the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung invite you to their annual commemoration of the 1938 November Pogrom (Kristallnacht). The commemoration will include formal remarks, a candle lighting ceremony, a performance by violinist Sharon De Kock, and a keynote address from Prof Hanna Yablonka, […]

SUNDAY 17 NOVEMBER 21:00 Join us for a special event marking the launch of Arbeit Macht Frei, the final book in Dr. Batya Brutin’s trilogy on Holocaust icons in visual art. The programme opens with remarks from Yigal Cohen, CEO of Ghetto Fighters' House. Prof. Shelley Hornstein will then explore how visual art—through sculptures, photographs, […]