ART IN THE HOLOCAUST Exhibition

Commemorating the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht, this HKHTC-HKU Art in the Holocaust exhibition, in collaboration with Yad Vashem, provided a glimpse into art created during the Holocaust in ghettos, camps, forests and while in hiding.

The artworks reflect the tension between the artists’ need to document the terrible events they endured and their desire to break free through art, and escape into the realms of beauty, imagination and faith. These artworks, from Yad Vashem’s Art Collection, stand as testimony to the strength of the human spirit that refuses to surrender.

This exhibition took place during November and December 2023 at the HKU Centennial Campus.

This special project was organized along with the University of Hong Kong and in cooperation with Yad Vashem.

Through our ongoing partnership with Yad Vashem, HKHTC’s Education Team is conducting workshops and seminars that bring together tertiary students from the Hong Kong, Macao and China with students in Japan and Malaysia.

For the first time since the pandemic, HKHTC Executive Director Simon Li has taken a local community delegation to Jerusalem in September 2023 for an on-site tour and educational programming at Yad Vashem’s Mount Herzl museum and Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem, etc.

This school year, we have organized many live sessions with Holocaust survivor Pinchas Gutter, a survivor from Poland who is an active member of our Dimensions in Testimony (DiT) project in Hong Kong and Asia — in collaboration with the USC Shoah Foundation. Pinchas joined a number of school, university and community gatherings from his home in Canada, sharing his story and answering questions directly from students. Pictured here are Pinchas’ live sessions with German Swiss International School and Malvern College Hong Kong.

Our Executive Director, Simon Li, was able to meet Pinchas in Toronto in August 2023 and thank him in person for all the countless events he participated in.

This school year, HKHTC’s Education Team has organized many live sessions with Holocaust survivor Pinchas Gutter, a survivor from Poland who was the keynote speaker at this year’s Holocaust Remembrance Day commemoration in January 2023, which was held at the Asia Society’s Hong Kong Centre.

Subsequently, Pinchas joined a number of school, university and community gatherings from his home in Canada, sharing his story and answering questions directly from students. Pictured here are Pinchas’ live sessions with Elsa High School, which is a Jewish day school in Hong Kong.

Through our partnership with the USC Shoah Foundation, HKHTC is bringing eye-opening AI and VR technology to Hong Kong. This makes it possible to engage with survivor testimony in an interactive and personal way.

This academic year, we have also introduced this project to students of Buddhist Wong Wan Tin College, who can compare and contrast different survivor testimonies and explore the diverse backgrounds of families whose lives were destroyed in the Shoah. With similar local Chinese school partners, we are developing educational resources in Chinese and also have survivor testimony from the Nanjing massacre for classroom use.

This fall, HKHTC was pleased to host the director of ‘Shttl’ Ady Walter at the University of Hong Kong. Mr Walter screened his film and participated in a Q&A session with HKU undergradate and graduate students. The post-screening session was moderated by HKHTC Chairman Dr Roland Vogt.

Shttl is a 2022 Ukrainian–French one-shot drama film written and directed by Mr Walter and starring Moshe Lobel and Saul Rubinek. The film depicts the lives of a Jewish shtetl on the eve of Operation Barbarossa. Shttl premiered at the 2022 London Film Festival, and won the Audience Award one week later at the Rome Film Festival.