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50 - 950 West 41st Ave, P: 604.264.0499 |
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UPCOMING exhibit
Recognizing that the events unfolding around him in Europe in the fall of 1939 were unprecedented and required careful documentation and preservation, Warsaw historian Emanuel Ringelblum gathered a few dozen writers, historians, rabbis, teachers, and welfare workers to form a group code-named Oyneg Shabbes [Joy of Sabbath]. The mission of Oyneg Shabbes was to document Jewish life in Nazi-occupied Poland. Reports on the deportation and murders of Jews, ghetto artifacts, photographs, children’s school essays, and ghetto art were collected by the clandestine group from September 1939 until January 1943. Travelling exhibit produced by the Museum of Jewish Heritage. |
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UPCOMING exhibit
Records kept by the Nazis have provided much information about the systematic persecution and murder of Jews between 1933 and 1945, but offer few insights into Jewish responses to the Holocaust. Documentary traces – including diaries, letters, clandestine wartime publications and post-war eyewitness narratives – illustrate the multiplicity of Jewish reactions. Although some early histories of the Holocaust portrayed Jews as passive victims, recent accounts have contributed to a more nuanced representation of Jews as active resisters. Jewish resistance assumed many forms and took place at the various moments and settings of the Holocaust. As Nazi power expanded across Europe, Jews responded to changing circumstances. They participated in resistance activities in ghettos, in slave labour camps, and even in concentration and extermination camps. Jews fought in 30 Jewish and 21 non-Jewish partisan units. Revolts took place in 90 ghettos and three concentration camps. This exhibit draws inspiration from the artefacts and testimonies of survivors who settled in Canada after the war, which represent a range of responses to Nazism. The narratives speak to Jewish efforts to maintain their humanity, preserve their past, document unimaginable events and sabotage Nazi war efforts. They reflect practical responses, symbolic gestures and efforts to save lives. Produced by the VHEC |
