Yad VaShem

The exhibition is structured around eight major themes: play, study, friendship, Who Am I, work, home, family and rites of passage.

Studio de Lange, created a symbolic forest with the exhibition materials displayed inside “trees.” Each one of these 33 trees contains a central story, with additional stories displayed on digital screens. There are also trees with more general topics such as “children’s homes” or “youth movements.”

On display are items from Yad Vashem’s artifacts, art and archives collections. Designer Niv Moshe Ben-David created the “Children before the Holocaust,” installation and edited the films screened on the trees.

Exhibition curator Yehudit Inbar said, “The Holocaust put an abrupt end to childhood. In many cases children became the breadwinners of the family and encouraged their parents to continue the desperate struggle for survival. Nevertheless, they remained children, and whenever they could, they played, laughed, wrote stories and drew pictures expressing their fears and hopes. ”

Curator: Yehudit Inbar