UNESCO - United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

01/25/2022 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 01/25/2022 08:35

New exhibition at UNESCO commemorates the legacy of the Holocaust

A new exhibition at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris honours the survivors of the Holocaust and the legacy they transmit to younger generations.

"Generations: Portraits of Holocaust survivors" captures images of Holocaust survivors, refugees and hidden children who have rebuilt their lives in the United Kingdom. Their portraits and personal stories are at the heart of the exhibition.

The photo exhibition will be displayed at UNESCO headquarters in Paris from 20 January to 4 February 2022 in Hall Ségur and around the exterior of the UNESCO building for the public to see.

Many of the photographs capture the survivor with their children and grandchildren, who should not be here according to the genocidal plan of the Nazi Germans. By doing so, it invites the audience to reflect on the families and children lost during the Holocaust.

12 Fellows of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain took photographs for the exhibition, including the Society's Patron, HRH the Duchess of Cambridge.

The installation of the exhibition marks the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust on 27 January 2022. UNESCO are organising a commemorative ceremony at on the International Day, where UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay will be joined by H.E. Mr Olaf Scholz, Federal Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, H.E. Mr Isaac Herzog, President of the State of Israel, and Mr Piotr Cywiński, Director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.

UNESCO and the Musée d'art et d'histoire de Judaïsme are also organizing an online panel discussion to highlight the work and legacy of the journalist and writer Hersh Fenster and that of the 84 Jewish artists that he has portrayed in his book "Our martyr artists", published in Yiddish in 1951.

Assistant Director General Stefania Giannini said, "This exhibition is a contemporary act of resistance from all those survivors and refugees from Nazi Germany who refuse to remain silent, or invisible, in the face of the crimes of their childhoods. It sharpens our sense of moral responsibility, and reminds us of the abiding consequences of allowing hate speech and violent ideologies to proliferate without challenge.

UNESCO supports educators worldwide to educate about the history of Holocaust, to prevent antisemitism and to counter Holocaust denial and distortion.

The exhibition is organised by UNESCO and the Royal Photographic Society in partnership with the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, the Imperial War Museum, Jewish News, the Association of Jewish Refugees, with the generous support of the Permanent Delegations of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of the Principality of Monaco to UNESCO, and the World Jewish Congress.

Photo: UNESCO/Fabrice Gentile