Future Events

Beit Theresienstadt online lecture:

New online lectures series:

“Nazi Looted Art Restitution:
Art and the Nazi Regime”
Online lecture series
By Shir Kochavi ,PhD


The Return of Nazi-Looted Art

Sunday, 10.03.24, 20:00 (israel time)

The process of restitution of Nazi-looted art, especially those confiscated from Jewish collections during the Second World War is complex and has risen to public attention since the early 2000s. One of the most well known cases is the case of the Gustav Klimt painting “The Woman in Gold” (Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer). This artwork became a symbol for the artistic wealth that Jewish families had at the time and for the difficulty for the heirs of these families to restitute their prewar cultural property.  

While many restitution cases are still taking place today, in this talk we will also discuss the incredible 2012 discovery of the Gurlitt collection. Cornelius Gurlitt was the son of the art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt, who was working with the Nazi regime in their effort to remove “degenerate” art from Germany and sell it to buyers around the world. Over 1000 original works of art that were unseen since the end of the Second World War were found in his collection. Throughout this presentation I will bring a couple of examples of important art restitution cases and discuss the outcome of the Gurlitt trove since its 2012 discovery.    

Link to the lecture:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84618789293

 

About the lecturer:

Shir Kochavi is an art historian with extensive expertise in curatorial work and provenance research. She is currently working on a post-doc at the Bar Ilan University where she researches the post-Holocaust period within the framework of the cultural world and commemoration. Her past positions include curatorial work at the University of California Berkeley, research work for the Company for Location and Restitution of Holocaust Victims’ as well as at auction houses and galleries.

Her research interests include 20th Century Jewish history, women’s involvement in post-war narratives, Jewish ritual objects, Jewish museums, and the history of collecting.lecturer

Looking for my family through time by Ariana Neumann

Sunday, 17.03.24, 20:00 (israel time)

In 1941, the first Neumann family member was taken by the Nazis, arrested in German-occupied Czechoslovakia for bathing in a stretch of river forbidden to Jews. He was transported to Auschwitz. Eighteen days later his prisoner number was entered into the morgue book.

Of thirty-four Neumann family members, twenty-five were murdered by the Nazis. One of the survivors was Hans Neumann, who, to escape the German death net, traveled to Berlin and hid in plain sight under the Gestapo’s eyes. What Hans experienced was so unspeakable that, when he built an industrial empire in Venezuela, he couldn’t bring himself to talk about it. All his daughter Ariana knew was that something terrible had happened.

When Hans died, he left Ariana a small box filled with letters, diary entries, and other memorabilia. Ten years later Ariana finally summoned the courage to have the letters translated, and she began reading. What she discovered launched her on a worldwide search that would deliver indelible portraits of a family loving, finding meaning, and trying to survive amid the worst that can be imagined.

When Time Stopped is an unputdownable detective story and an epic family memoir, spanning nearly ninety years and crossing oceans. Neumann brings each relative to vivid life. In uncovering her father’s story after all these years, she discovers nuance and depth to her own history and liberates poignant and thought-provoking truths about the threads of humanity that connect us all.

Link to the lecture:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88904316713

A special online event commemorating the last transport from Theresienstadt, the transport to Switzerland

Sunday, February 4th 8:00 PM

Participating survivors: Achim and Ester Bagainski, Zvi Cohen

On the morning of February 5, 1945, at the train platform of Ghetto Theresienstadt, 1,200 excited men, women and children boarded the carriages of a fancy passenger train, a train very different from what they were used to seeing in recent months.

The train set off and arrived in Switzerland the next day. When the train arrived in St. Gallen, they were greeted by members of the ‘Rescue Committee’ that Swiss Jews had established to help Jewish refugees and bring them from the concentration camps to Switzerland. The rescue operation was made possible through the mediation of the former president, Jean-Marie Moussi, who, despite his views in the past, was horrified by the results of the Germans’ actions and tried to save what was possible.

Beit Theresienstadt is an active project partner to a commemoration project initiated by St. Gallen University of Teacher Education and the Mamlock Foundation aimed at preserving the memories of the survivors of this rescue mission.

Link to the event: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82720887835

For further details click here