Holocaust, Warsaw Ghetto Remembered in New Montclair State Exhibit

As Holocaust survivor Gina Lanceter looked at paintings of Nazi concentration camps unveiled at Montclair State University Thursday, she said they needed to be seen. The images must be preserved; never be forgotten. 

“I went through all of this, so to me it is very dear and very close to my heart,” said Lanceter. “It is a beautiful exhibit. And maybe beautiful is not the right word, but ... I think that students, kids should see it.” 

Seventy years after the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in German-occupied Poland, Montclair State unveiled paintings by Israel Bernbaum that preserve the history of the largest revolt by Jews against Nazis during World War II. 

These works, said President of Montclair State Susan Cole, “commemorate a tragic period of time, but even more so, ... commemorate the heroic resources of the human spirit.” 

The university was given a cache of Bernbaum's work — six large murals, 20 paintings and innumerable drawings — by The Holocaust Resource Center of the Jewish Federation of Greater Clifton/Passaic when it closed its doors 2011.

Mark Levenson, president of the New Jersey State Association of Jewish Federations, said the works are a “source of pride to our federation, ... to our community ... and to Holocaust survivors.” 

Bernbaum, a Warsaw-born Holocaust survivor who died in 1993, depicts images of immense suffering and death, but also resistance in the collection. He used many of the simplified, child-like paintings to illustrate a children’s book about the Holocaust, titled “My Brother’s Keeper.” 

Many of the works on display required restoration, and still many more are currently being repaired. Teresa Rodriguez, director and curator at the George Segal Gallery at Montclair State where the pieces are displayed, said it is a large but important undertaking. 

Standing next to three canvases on display with the word “Remember” written in English, Yiddish and Hebrew, exhibition curator Batya Brutin said the works ensure both the artist and Holocaust are never forgotten.  

“We continue [Bernbaum’s] legacy as well as the legacy of the Holocaust,” said Brutin.

Montclair State University will be holding lectures and programs highlighting Israel Bernabaum’s works during the upcoming weeks. For more information, click here or call (973) 655-3382. 

Upcoming programs include: 

March 19, 2013
Lecture: Not Like Sheep to the Slaughter: The Range of Resistance to the Holocaust - Rabbi Norman Patz, Philosophy and Religion Department

March 20, 2013
Film Screening: Chronicle of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising According to Marek Edelman - Introduction by Ben Lapp, History Department

March 21, 2013
Lecture: We Knew…and Did Nothing: The American Press Covers the Holocaust, 1941-1945 - Ron Hollander, English and Journalism Department, Director, Jewish American Studies

April 9, 2013
Holocaust Remembrance, Student Competition and Conference
Lecture: The Warsaw Ghetto: History and Memory 70 years Later - Samuel Kassow, Trinity College, author of Who Will Write Our History? Emanuel Ringelblum, the Warsaw Ghetto, and the Oyneg Shabes Archive