Plan your Visit to Yad Vashem
Image
test
Icon arrow right

Yad Vashem is open to the general public, free of charge. All visits to Yad Vashem must be reserved in advance.

Jewish Culture in the Ghettos and Camps during the Holocaust Period

During the Holocaust, while incarcerated in ghettos and camps, living in hiding or on the run, many Jews attempted to maintain the artistic and cultural activities that had existed before the war.  In order to sketch and paint their fellow Jews, they obtained paint, charcoal and pencils, sometimes at mortal risk, and often in exchange for their daily rations; they fashioned objects, games and tools; many wrote diaries documenting their daily lives.  The diaries of the Judenrat heads and the archives written in the ghettos also documented artistic and cultural life.

Kovno, Lithuania, A performance of the ghetto orchestra
Kovno, Lithuania, A performance of the ghetto orchestra

Kovno, Lithuania, A performance of the ghetto orchestra
Marcel Reich-Ranicki: Cultural Activity in the Warsaw Ghetto

Excerpt from: Warsaw Ghetto - Culture Without Walls
Directed By: Noemi Schory
Producers: Liat Benhabib, Noemi Schory, Liran Atzmor
Production Company: Belfilms Ltd.

Marcel Reich-Ranicki: Cultural Activity in the Warsaw Ghetto
Cultural Life in the Vilna Ghetto: Holocaust Survivor Testimonies

Cultural Life in the Vilna Ghetto: Holocaust Survivor Testimonies
Holocaust Survivor Testimony: Jakob Zim

Holocaust Survivor Testimony: Jakob Zim
Samuel Bak, Artist, USA: Icons of Loss- The Image of the Warsaw Boy in the Art of Samuel Bak [24:01 min]

Samuel Bak, Artist, USA: Icons of Loss- The Image of the Warsaw Boy in the Art of Samuel Bak [24:01 min]
Lodz, Poland, The Lodz Ghetto Symphony Orchestra
Lodz, Poland, The Lodz Ghetto Symphony Orchestra

Lodz, Poland, The Lodz Ghetto Symphony Orchestra
The Vilna ghetto choir and conductor Wolf Durmashkin, who was murdered in the Klooga camp, Estonia.
The Vilna ghetto choir and conductor Wolf Durmashkin, who was murdered in the Klooga camp, Estonia.

The Vilna ghetto choir and conductor Wolf Durmashkin, who was murdered in the Klooga camp, Estonia.
Members of “The Front of the Wilderness Generation” dance in a circle. Lodz Ghetto, 1941
Members of “The Front of the Wilderness Generation” dance in a circle. Lodz Ghetto, 1941

Members of “The Front of the Wilderness Generation” dance in a circle. Lodz Ghetto, 1941
Westerbork, Holland 1943 - Musicians in a play in the camp
Westerbork, Holland 1943 - Musicians in a play in the camp

Westerbork, Holland 1943 - Musicians in a play in the camp
Warsaw ghetto - a theatre presentation
Warsaw ghetto - a theatre presentation

Warsaw ghetto - a theatre presentation