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Photo exhibition at UNESCO captures snapshot of life before the Holocaust
A new photo exhibition at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris reflects on Jewish life before the Second World War. These private family photographs uncover a hidden history of pre-Nazi era Jewish life in Germany and Austria. The exhibition uncovers the stories of the individuals who took the photographs or were captured in them, including stories of persecution, deportation, murder, and refuge.
The photo exhibition is displayed at UNESCO headquarters in Paris from 17 January to 10 February 2023 around the exterior of the UNESCO building for the public to see.
Many of the photographs capture the intimate scenes from Jewish family lives that each tell a story about the individual’s identities, relationships and people and places they cherished. By doing so, it invites the audience to reflect on the families and communities murdered during the Holocaust.
The installation of the exhibition marked the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust on 27 January 2022. UNESCO organized commemorative ceremony on the 26 January, where UNESCO Director-General Ms Audrey Azoulay was joined by Mr Eric de Rothschild, President of the Mémorial de la Shoah, and composer Jorge Grundman whose works Shoah and The Last Breath were performed by violinist Mr Robert Davidovici.
Senior Curator and Head of Education at the Wiener Holocaust Library, Dr Barbara Warnock, said, ‘The Wiener Holocaust Library holds the largest collection of pre-Nazi-era Jewish family photographs in Britain. These precious materials document the lives of Jews in Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, giving us a unique insight into this lost world.’
UNESCO supports educators worldwide to educate about the history of Holocaust, to prevent antisemitism and to counter Holocaust denial and distortion.
The exhibition is supported by the Permanent Delegation of Germany to UNESCO.
