The Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre

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 UTC | 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.

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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).
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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
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.
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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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Film screening of Maestro and a performance by Sharon De Kock for International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Holocaust
2024-02-11 14:30 - 16:00 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
In honour of International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Holocaust, the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, the Embassy of Italy in Pretoria, the Consulate General of Italy in Johannesburg, Rosa Luxemberg Stiftung and the Istituto Italiano di Cultura invite you to join us for a screening of the acclaimed film, Maestro: In Search of the Last Music, with formal remarks, a candle lighting ceremony by Holocaust survivors, and a performance by acclaimed violinist Sharon De Kock.
The docu-film Maestro makes use of an extremely evocative footage, and manages to retrace the memory of a number of musicians who fell victim to the Holocaust (Shoah). He collected, restored and brought back to life their melodies – sometimes just scribbled on toilet paper – before they vanish within the silence of history.
Sharon De Kock has been a violinist in the Odeion String Quartet and violin lecturer at the University of the Free State since 2008. She has performed and lectured internationally, returning to South Africa in 2006 and performs regularly as soloist and chamber musician. In June of 2021, Sharon graduated with a DMus degree from the North-West University (NWU) in Potchefstroom. As an avid advocate for teaching children who do not have access to lessons and instruments, Sharon started a community project, Violins for Peace, at the St Patrick”s Anglican church (Bloemfontein) in Jan of 2022. Thanks to the Istituto di Letteratura Musicale Concentrazionaria, Barletta (Italy) for access to the music that will be played at the concert.
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Holocaust Study Trip to Poland: Encounters & Reflections
2024-02-15 19:00 - 20:00 | Online
Staff from the Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban Holocaust & Genocide Centres joined the Austrian Service Abroad and the Kaplan Centre for Jewish Studies (UCT) for an annual Holocaust Study Tour in Poland.
Join us as the delegates reflect on their experiences visiting sites in the context of Jewish life in Poland and the Holocaust, including synagogues and community centres, the Warsaw Ghetto, Treblinka, Plaszów and Auschwitz- Birkenau.
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"Bridge over Troubled Waters": Solidarity: A Vital Support System for Female Prisoners in Nazi Camps
2024-02-18 21:00 - 22:00 | Online
This programme will focus on instances of solidarity and compassion among female prisoners in Nazi camps during the Holocaust, raising questions about the connection between a shared sense of unity and the chances of survival. Dr. Rochelle G. Saidel will give the opening remarks on the importance of researching and discussing the history of women and their unique experiences during the Holocaust.
The first speaker, Dr. Mehak Burza, will explore the manifestations of solidarity among female prisoners, as well as the various strategies used to keep up the struggle for survival in the camps, while seeking a sense of solidarity and sisterhood. Burza will also trace the role of kashariyot – the young female couriers who played a crucial role in the resistance against Nazi-occupied Europe.
The second speaker, Prof. Yoel Yaari, will present the unique story of Bela Hazan, who was born in 1922 in Rozyszcze, Poland. She served as a courier in the underground youth movement Dror, using a Polish false identity. After being arrested, she was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Yaari will explore Hazan’s remarkable demonstration of devotion and solidarity as she took care of the patients in the Jewish ward, serving as a nurse.
This programme is a partnership between Ghetto Fighters House Museum, the Remember the Women Institute, the Rabin Chair Forum at George Washington University, and the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre.
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#GOHOMEGOTA: Film screening and Q&A
2024-02-20 18:00 - 19:30 | 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.
RSVP is essential: click here to RSVP

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.
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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.
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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
