ARTS

Merkel opens Berlin exhibition of Holocaust art

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.

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.

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  THE ART OF THE HOLOCAUST

  The colors of the ghetto

  Can something horrible also be beautiful? As seen in the Berlin exhibition "Art from the Holocaust: 100 Works from the Yad Vashem Collection," a number of artists managed to document life in Nazi concentration camps and ghettos and create great art even during one of humanity's greatest tragedies. Pictured: "A Street in Łódź Ghetto" by Josef Kowner, who survived the Holocaust.

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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.