Jewish Art as Autobiography: Reconstructing Life Stories of Holocaust Survivors through Art

The lecture discusses the late works of Holocaust survivors as seen through the prism of the artistic reconstructing of a 'life story'. The time that has passed since the events enabled numerous of survivors artists to relate their Holocaust experience as just a part of their life. Survivors' life stories are expressed in works that enfolds the past in the present depicting their Holocaust experiences together with additional "rehabilitation" works illustrating elements such as their childhood before the Holocaust, their establishment of families afterwards, their Jewish Identity, their experience of parenthood and grandparenthood, their successful resettlement in their new countries, and their acquisition of a new national identity. The perception of personal stories of the Holocaust as part of the continuum of life is anchored in the field of 'life story' research, which lies in disciplines of literature and psychology. The lecture discusses the use of the analysis methods of these disciplines in Jewish art, and explores the uniqueness of reconstructing a life story in art as a communication tool of the highest order and as a therapeutic tool enabling the survivors to self-process their story, and re-narrate it as a story of rehabilitation, leading to completion and meaningfulness in their life after the Holocaust.