Abstract
Memorialization of the Holocaust in Israeli art appeared from the establishment of the State in 1948 and onwards. It was influenced by Israeli society, Israeli art’s institutional attitude towards the subject and by local historical events such as wars, Nazi criminals’ trials, and the conflict between the Israelis and the Arabs since 1948.
For the first three decades of the State of Israel (1948–1967), survivor artists created artworks relating to their memories from the Holocaust period. In the late 1970s the artistic creation on the subject of the Holocaust intensified with the emergence of “Second Generation” artists responses. During the 1980s onward the Holocaust gained the recognition of the artistic establishment as a worthy topic for Israeli art and it is at the center of the Israeli artistic consciousness ever since in the form of memorialization. The phenomenon spread to Israeli artists with no personal relations to the Holocaust. Some artists used images from the Holocaust to refer to current events. From the 1990s onward, the duality between victim and aggressor became a central theme in Israeli art following the occupation of the West Bank and territories after the 6 day war and the first Intifada (1987–1991).
I vowed everything to remember
Remember all and forget nothing
“Vow ” – Avraham Shlonsky (1943)
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Notes
- 1.
The Land of Israel prior to the establishing of the State of Israel in 1948.
- 2.
Intifada was a Palestinian violent uprising against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza , which lasted from December 1987 until the Madrid Conference in 1991.
- 3.
Interview with Yehuda Bacon , Jerusalem, 14 January 2000.
- 4.
<IndexTerm ID="ITerm48">Author’s Interview with Moshe Bernstein, Tel Aviv, August 1999.
- 5.
Ibid.
- 6.
Author’s interviews with Itzchak Belfer, Tel Aviv, July 1999.
- 7.
Sabra is an informal slang term that refers to any Israeli Jew born on Israeli territory.
- 8.
Author’s interviews with Pál Fux, Jerusalem, October 1999.
- 9.
The Nazis photographed the arriving prisoners in three positions: profile, frontal with uncovered head, and at slight turn with covered head. Maor chose only two of them because he wanted the message and the meaning of this description and its association with the Holocaust to be indirect (Interview with Haim Maor , Kibbutz Givat Haim, (Meuhad), winter 1998).
- 10.
Interviews with Haim Maor , Givat Haim (Meuhad), winter 1998.
- 11.
Author’s interview with Yaakov Gildor, Tel Aviv, January 1998.
- 12.
The sealed mouth motif appears in many artworks in order to express speechlessness following the Holocaust, an inability or lack of desire to speak about the past trauma of the Holocaust.
- 13.
Pinchas Sha’ar has decided to create a positive and colorful art about life and joy. An interview with his brother Mr. Joseph Schwartz and his former wife, Mrs. Eli (Elisheva) Sha’ar, January 2000.
- 14.
Author’s interview with Honi ha-M’agel Itzkowitz, Tel Aviv, October 2001.
- 15.
Yehudim Be’germania al Hafganat Ha’charedim: “mitbayshim” (Jews in Germany about the ultra-Orthodox demonstration: “we are ashamed”) http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-4170817,00.html (Hebrew).
- 16.
Published in Yedioth Ahronoth, 2 Jan. 2012, 21; author’s telephone conversations with Guy Morad , Feb. 2012.
- 17.
The author’s interview with Avner Bar Hama , March 2010, November 2011.
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Brutin, B. (2018). When Past and Present Meet in Israeli Art: Memorialization of the Holocaust. In: Lindert, J., Marsoobian, A. (eds) Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Genocide and Memory. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65513-0_9
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