Chaïm Kaliski’s Drawings Haunted by the Shoah Revealed in an Exhibition at mahJ

Les dessins hantés par la Shoah de Chaïm Kaliski se révèlent dans une expo au mahJ

The Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaïsme (mahJ) in Paris is hosting the first monographic exhibition dedicated to Chaïm Kaliski, a Belgian artist who began drawing at the age of 60 to process the trauma of the Holocaust. After his death in 2015, thousands of drawings were discovered in his Brussels apartment, documenting his family's history and the fate of Polish Jews in Belgium. The exhibition features 120 works that blend childlike aesthetics with haunting historical narratives, including poignant depictions of his parents' final moments at Auschwitz.

On Showing My Paintings in Auschwitz

Artist and Holocaust survivor Yehudis Barmatz-Harris has installed a series of paintings within the barracks of Auschwitz-Birkenau, marking a profound personal and artistic return to the site of her family's trauma. The works, which utilize materials like salt and organic textures, are placed directly on the wooden bunks where prisoners once slept, creating a visceral dialogue between contemporary Jewish life and the void left by the Shoah.

Hadassah-Brandeis Institute spotlights Holocaust survivors‘ art in Kniznick Gallery

The Kniznick Gallery at Brandeis University has opened "Who Will Draw Our History? Women’s Graphic Narratives of the Holocaust, 1944-1949," an exhibition curated by Rachel E. Perry. The show features the work of ten female survivors who utilized visual storytelling—including handmade albums, pictorial diaries, and wordless novels—to document their experiences in concentration camps like Auschwitz-Birkenau and Ravensbrück. These "graphic narratives" serve as early visual testimonies, often created as a "call to duty" immediately following the liberation.