By the Cape Town Holocaust & Genocide Centre
Our Survivors continue to be a source of inspiration for us all – their resilience, tenacity and sense of spirit, is extraordinary.
In commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Professor Omer Bartov was our guest speaker for World Holocaust Memorial Day and delivered a heart rendering lecture on his family’s origin and their subsequent demise called: Anatomy of a Genocide: The Life and Death of a Town Called Buczac. Italian editor, writer, essayist and literary critic, Alberto Rollo, discussed how prominent Italian writers explored Jewish identity within their works and the changes in the landscape brought by the writings of Primo Levi and Giorgio Bassani.
Continuing in this vein we decided that the month of February would be dedicated to our survivors who made Cape Town their home. The artists of Highlands House ambitiously took on the project of painting a series of 41 survivor portraits, the result a wonderful exhibition.
Survivors Ella Blumenthal and Helene Joffe shared their personal testimonies and Luc Albinski explored ‘The Heroines of the Warsaw Ghetto Doctor Corps’ with particular reference to his grandmother Dr Halina Rotstein and his mother Wanda.
It is through testimony that the flame of the Holocaust burns brightly for us to learn, memorialise and commemorate those who perished under the hands of the Nazi regime.
Cape Town Holocaust and Genocide Centre: https://ctholocaust.co.za/, admin@holocaust.org.za
• Published in the print edition of the March/April Pesach 2021 issue. Download the March/April 2021 issue PDF here.
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