PRESS RELEASE
Angela Bazydlo
Associate Director, Media Relations
Tel: (508) 793-7635
email: [email protected]
February 19, 2007
Clark University’s to host "Neighbors Who Disappeared" Exhibit
WORCESTER, MA- Beginning Thursday, March 15, Clark’s Strassler Center
for Holocaust and Genocide Studies will host "Neighbors Who
Disappeared," an educational exhibit from the Jewish Museum in Prague
that depicts Jews who disappeared from Czech towns during World War II.
"Neighbors Who Disappeared" was created by Czech children, ages 12 to
21, who strove to return history and identity to some of the millions of
Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust. The young artists’ mixed-media
panels reflect the history of the Nazi Holocaust as it affected their
own cities and towns. Their collages combine text, drawings, paintings,
contemporary and historical photographs, and facsimiles of historical
documents. Some panels are powerful journalistic documentaries, others
are highly stylized artistic expressions. All help to return human
dignity to those who were dehumanized so cruelly.
The Clark exhibit consists of nineteen 80 x 30 inch panels, each one
representing the results of the children’s research on a specific town
or city. It also includes panels from the first phase of the project,
"A Tribute to the Child Victims of the Holocaust," which chronicles the
lives of Jewish children, especially those who attended the same schools
as the young people who created the panels.
Former Czech President, Václav Havel, said, "Hopefully, education and
knowledge of history linked together with pure compassion and humanity
will let us recognize the origins of old-new dangers and tie down the
demons of hatred and evil before they grow to overcome us again."
Marta Vanèurová, initiator and principal coordinator of the
Neighbors Who Disappeared project, also founded The Forgotten Ones, a
non-governmental organization in Prague.
The exhibit will be on display in the Cohen-Lasry House, 11 Hawthorne
Street, from March 15 through May 31. It is available for viewing
Mon.-Friday (9 a.m. to 4 p.m.) and Sundays (Noon to 4 p.m.). An opening
reception will be held on Sunday, April 1, from 2:30- 4:30 p.m. Michael
Kraus of Brookline, Mass., a survivor of Terezin, Auschwitz and
Mauthausen concentration camps, will deliver the opening remarks.
The exhibit is free and open to the public. For more information,
contact 508-793-8897.
This exhibit has been made possible by the Vilcek Foundation of New York
City, the Jewish Museum of Prague, the Forgotten Ones Foundation and the
Czech Centrum of New York City.
The mission of the Strassler Family Center for Holocaust and Genocide
Studies is to educate undergraduate and graduate students about genocide
and the Holocaust; to host a lecture series, free of charge and open to
the public; to use scholarship to address current problems stemming from
the murderous past; and to participate in the public discussion about a
host of issues ranging from the significance of state-sponsored denial
of the Armenian genocide and well-funded denial of the Holocaust to
intervention in and prevention of genocidal situations today.
Clark University is a private, co-educational liberal-arts research
university with 2,000 undergraduate and 800 graduate students. Since its
founding in 1887 as the first all-graduate school in the United States,
Clark has challenged convention with innovative programs such as the
International Studies Stream, the Strassler Family Center for Holocaust
and Genocide Studies and the accelerated BA/MA programs with the fifth
year tuition-free for eligible students. The University is featured in
Loren Pope’s book, "Colleges That Change Lives."
–
Angela Bazydlo
Associate Director, Media Relations
(508) 793-7635, [email protected]
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I will gladly send you a PDF of several of these panels upon request.