Survive, in Order to Create: Art Exhibition of Holocaust Survivors
An art exhibition of Holocaust survivors, titled “Survive, in Order to Create,” opens at the Moshe Castel Museum of Art in Ma’ale Adumim, Israel, on April 23, 2025. The event brings together 18 Israeli artists whose ancestry and links with Israel remained exceptionally tight throughout their lifetime, even though some of them were scattered around the world by the misfortunes of WWII and ended their lives in other countries.
The exhibition is organized in two gallery halls of the Moshe Castel Museum of Art, each with its own focus. The first section, titled “The Destroyed World,” is dedicated to the Holocaust tragedy and features works illustrating the cruelties and violence of the Nazis. The second section bears the name “The Rebirth” and instills hope and optimism with images of the Israeli nation’s recovery from the greatest tragedy in its history. The latter particularly features many depictions of Israeli landscapes, creating an emotional impact of hope for the state’s prosperity in the face of violent threats.
Moshe Fishzon – Jewish Refugees, 33х26 cm
The Lasting Trauma of the Holocaust
The whole world remembers the inhumaneness and tragic scale of the anti-Jewish massacre held by the Nazis during World War II. Holding the memories of this genocide at the heart of its nationhood, Israel commemorates all Holocaust victims. The first Holocaust memorial emerged in Israel five years after the state’s foundation in 1948, followed by the appearance of permanent collections of art dedicated to the Holocaust in Israeli museums.
Haim Aronstam – In Memory of the Victims of the Rumbula Forest Massacre, 1973, 55×54 cm
However, the degree of attention to Holocaust survivors is sizable lower than that of Holocaust victims. These people, though surviving the most horrible experience in their lifetime, have been given scarce visibility in the country’s cultural landscape. “Survive, in Order to Create” rectifies this imbalance by giving a voice to the trauma of survivors and explicating their life struggles and rebirth.
Naftali Bezem – The Inseparables, 60×40 cm
Mission of “Survive, in Order to Create”
The exhibition was organized under the curatorial guidance of Dr. Alek D. Epstein. The main purpose behind this group exhibition at the Moshe Castel Museum of Art is to give a chance for Holocaust survivors to share their stories and highlight their unique contributions to Israeli art and culture. Many artists whose works are included in the display were born in other countries or lived a life of emigration, but all of them are deeply associated with Israel as their motherland. Among the artists featured at the exhibition are Zoltan Perlmutter, David Peretz, Shmuel Bak, and Rafael Chwoles.
Haim Aronstam – Shabbat Candles Next to an Open Prayer Book, 1976, 50×40 cm
“Survive, in Order to Create” will be on view at the Moshe Castel Museum of Art through June 25, 2025.