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Merkel opens Berlin exhibition of Holocaust art

Sarah Judith Hofmann / kbmJanuary 25, 2016

Artists held in Nazi concentration camps documented the horror of torture and death in drawings and paintings. Now, 100 of their works are on show in Berlin.

https://p.dw.com/p/1HjNW
Girls in the Field, by Nelly Toll, 1943, Copyright: Collection of the Yad Vashem Art Museum, Jerusalem
Image: Collection of the Yad Vashem Art Museum, Jerusalem

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is to open the exhibition of Holocaust art at Berlin's German Historical Museum on Monday (25.01.2016). In the most extensive exhibition of its kind, 100 works from Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust memorial center, are now being shown in the German capital.

Among the paintings and drawings are well-known works such as Charlotte Salomon's "Life? or Theater?: A Song-play" and Leo Haas' "Transport Arrival, Theresienstadt Ghetto."

Most of the artists created their works in secret. Art became a method of resistant, and some - like the artists collective at the Theresienstadt camp - lost their lives because of it. Many works weren't discovered until after World War II ended in 1945.

Can depictions of genocide and personal tragedy contain a trace of artistic beauty? Click through the gallery above for impressions of the works.

The exhibition "Art from the Holocaust: 100 Works from Yad Vashem Collection" runs from January 26 - April 3, 2016 at the German Historical Museum in Berlin.