United Nations - Human Rights

A Conflict-Related Sexual Violence (CRSV) Survivor’s Journey: 15 Years On

AKAHNJOC — Tue, 04 Jun 2024 20:37:18 +0000

What is conflict-related sexual violence?

The term “conflict-related sexual violence” (CRSV) refers to rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, forced abortion, enforced sterilization, forced marriage, and any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity perpetrated against women, men, girls, or boys that is directly or indirectly linked to a conflict. Under international law, CRSV is a war crime, crime against humanity, crime of torture and can be a constitutive act of genocide.

Among its most prevalent root causes are pre-existing gender-based inequality, patriarchal social structures, poverty, and economic inequality.

Sexual violence in conflict is a despicable tactic of war and repression that destroys lives, terrorizes populations and fractures communities. We must listen to survivors, replace impunity with justice and indifference with action.”

- UN Secretary-General António Guterres on the commemoration of the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict, 17 June 2022

CRSV Data, Trends and Patterns

In 2023, the UN classified 21 situations of concern - current conflict-affected areas, those that are post-conflict, and other situations of concern where CRSV trends and patterns exist.

95%

Against women and girls

32%

Against children

Against men and boys

.6%

Against LGBTQI+ individuals

Unfortunately, these statistics do not reflect the full scale of this crime.

UN’s Response to CRSV

The Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict (SRSG-SVC), and its subsequent Office, was established in 2009 through Security Council resolution 1888. The Special Representative serves as the UN’s spokesperson and political advocate on CRSV. She chairs the United Nations Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict (UN Action) Network and her work is supported by the United Nations Team of Experts on the Rule of Law/Sexual Violence in Conflict (TOE) and a programmatic team.

TOE

The TOE was also created by Security Council resolution 1888 (2009) to assist national authorities in strengthening the rule of law, with the aim of ensuring criminal accountability for perpetrators of CRSV.

UN Action

UN Action was established in 2007 and is noted in various Security Council resolutions as the critical interagency coordination mechanism to address CRSV, comprised of 25 UN entities across the humanitarian, development and peacekeeping nexus.

Programme and Communications Team

The OSRSG-SVC’s Programme and Communications Team compiles the information that the UN collects and analyses data on CRSV for the purposes of improving early warning, prevention and response to CRSV, particular in tailoring response services for survivors.

The Story of CRSV

This exhibition illustrates a journey that a CRSV survivor may go through, starting from actions taken prior to the occurrence of CRSV, the incident of the crime, and the various short- and long-term pursuits to help promote a survivor’s safety, healing, and recovery.

Every survivor is unique, having been through their own experience and having different needs and ways of coping. This exhibition outlines a potential journey – one that is not linear – that survivors of CRSV could endure. It should not be forgotten that not all survivors have the opportunities, family, social or community networks, or capacity to move along the path to recovery. Survivors hold the decision to choose, or not choose, to undertake any services or activities.

Ultimately, there are as many stories as there are survivors.

Prevention of CRSV

What happened to me could have been prevented.”

- Survivor from Bosnia and Herzegovina reflecting on the CRSV incident perpetrated against her in November 1993

CRSV occurs before, during, and in the aftermath of conflict. It is driven by both armed conflict and gender inequality. As such, prevention measures and risk factors associated with CRSV draw from both conflict and gender-based violence, and include addressing root causes associated with political, economic and social inequalities, human rights violations, and drivers of insecurity and displacement such as climate change. Early signs of CRSV include threats against women human rights defenders, the outbreak of violence, and economic or political instability.

Therefore, preventing the occurrence of CRSV requires preventing the outbreak of conflict itself.

UN Action-funded trainings were conducted for more than 40 senior members of opposition forces in Diel, Central Upper Nile, in 2019 to identify concrete actions to help eliminate CRSV. UNMISS Photo

Officer beneficiaries who received trainings on the judicial handling of CRSV crimes in the DRC as part of UN Action-funded project in 2023. JHRO Photo

Multiple actors have a critical role to play in the prevention of CRSV, including governments, the UN system, non-governmental and civil society organisations, women’s groups, survivor representatives, the private sector, and individuals.

Prevention can be accomplished by:

Addressing stigma and root causes by targeting actions to advance gender equality
Regulating availability and misuse of illicit small arms
Increasing investment in human security and social support
Ensuring accountability through laws and prosecution
Securing commitments from conflict parties to prevent CRSV, and supporting sanctions against persistent perpetrators
Supporting early warning systems and capacity building
Engaging with vulnerable groups

UNODA's regional centre in Latin America and the Caribbean conducts a Firearms and Ammunition Evidence Management Course in El Salvador in December 2019. A series of technical elements were shared to incorporate a gender perspective in investigation processes of crimes committed with firearms with special attention to cases of violence against women. UNODA Photo

The Occurrence of CRSV

This video produced by the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) relays testimonies from conflict-related sexual violence survivors about the crimes committed against them and their effects. Anyone can be a CRSV survivor: women, girls, men, boys of all ages, those from the LGBTQI+ community, and persons with disabilities. Due to high rates of underreporting, CRSV is often a silent crime that results in low visibility among all actors that are positioned to help.

Video by Sonam Tharchen | Photo by Nektarios Markogiannis

After CRSV: The Survivor’s Journey Begins

All forms of assistance must be conducted in a survivor-centred approach. This means that the survivors’ rights, needs, and wishes are prioritised across any action with the objective to support them. The most recent resolution on CRSV, Security Council resolution 2467 (2019), articulates a survivor-centred approach for the first time in the UN’s framework of responding to CRSV, recognising the importance of viewing survivors as leaders and agents of change, rather than just victims. Adopting a survivor-centred approach means creating a supportive environment for survivors, where they are the primary decision makers and can safely identify and express their needs and wishes.

Survivors know best what they need to heal and recover.”

– Nadia Murad, Yazidi survivor, activist and Nobel Prize laureate

Stage 1 - Immediate Assistance for Survivors

After the occurrence of a CRSV crime, survivors may be assisted by a range of actors. These include local non-governmental and civil society organisations, social workers, humanitarian workers, government agencies, police, and the military. In situations where the UN has a field presence, such as a peacekeeping operation or special political mission, the UN can provide assistance, including through its agencies and partners through Women’s Protection Advisers or CRSV focal points.

To emphasise the collective effort to provide assistance and address the immediate needs of CRSV survivors, the OSRSG-SVC Conflict's Programme and Communications Team will work with the national authorities or non-state actors who signed communiqués to develop implementation plans, in collaboration with civil society organisations. These plans further articulate concrete actions to ensure that there is a cohesive approach to preventing and responding to CRSV.

Immediate and Short-Term Assistance

In many instances, the aforementioned actors may assist survivors to access more specialised services, such as sexual and reproductive health care, medical and psychosocial services, and referrals to legal assistance. It is important that survivors are provided with comprehensive information so they can make informed choices, including choices about using multisectoral response services and the possible consequences of accessing those services.

One-Stop Centre Model

One-Stop Centres or mobile health clinics are types of service centres that may be available to survivors. They can cover a spectrum of multisectoral care and support for survivors of CRSV. The centres or mobile clinics can provide urgent, integrated and ethical services and facilitate timely response services under one roof.

Dignity Kit

Humanitarian actors often distribute Dignity Kits that typically contain menstrual hygiene materials, soap, underwear, and information on available gender-based violence services, including where and how to access those services. These kits can be tailored to each context, taking into consideration local languages, cultural, and religious garments.

Stage 2 - Medium- and Long-Term Assistance

Pursuing Justice & Accountability

As part of their journey, CRSV survivors may also wish to pursue legal action against their perpetrators. It is critical that legal services are available should they wish to utilise them. This includes access to legal aid centres and hotlines in local languages, the provision of materials and individual reparations, and participation in transitional justice processes in the long term. It is also critical that CRSV survivors are made aware of their rights to legal aid and assistance. Trials to prosecute CRSV crimes should be held in strict compliance with international standards, including in relation to procedural fairness, the full participation of victims, and the security and protection of all parties.

These are the veils and disguises that were worn during the Minova Rape Trials in the DRC. CRSV survivors wore them to protect their identities from the public due to stigma associated with sexual violence and risks of retaliation.

The Guinea Trial

In September 2023, current Special Representative Patten travelled to Guinea for the opening of the trial on the 13th anniversary of the massacre at the Conakry stadium (28 September 2009) that saw 150 deaths and countless rapes of women and girls. Through the Team of Experts on the Rule of Law and Sexual Violence in Conflict, the Office of Special Representative Patten supported the investigating judges until the closing of the investigation and the establishment of a Steering Committee for the organisation of the hearings.

Video produced by ONU Guinée (Video in French with English subtitles)

Undertaking Livelihood Activities, Skills Training, and Education

The majority of survivors come from socioeconomically marginalised communities, whereby stigma and discrimination surrounding survivors of sexual violence may restrict their access to education and economic life. It is therefore vital that efforts to assist CRSV survivors on their road to recovery include the provision of education, livelihood activities, and skills training, such as economic empowerment initiatives.

The impact of survivor empowerment and reintegration:

Participate in existing markets and education systems
Access educational and work opportunities
Voice agency in economic decision-making
Exercise control over their resources and political future

Bolster individuals’ agency and independence
Help survivors reintegrate within groups or communities
Empower survivors to become active contributors and agents of change

Through the UN Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, there are numerous multi-stakeholder initiatives undertaken to support CRSV survivors to become employed, self-sufficient, and educated. The following information showcases an example of how CRSV survivors participate in livelihood activities, skills training, and education through engagement with the UN Action Network.

Somalia

In a gathering space, discussions included early marriage, the roles of women in the security sector, and the roles of mothers in protecting their children from violence.

A cultural heritage event allowed participants to present their unique traditions, foods, arts, and dances to strengthen relationships among communities.

A pot-breaking exercise stimulated discussions about trust and responsibility.

Running between 2020 and 2021, UN Action funded a project that leveraged the strength of women in Somalia to mitigate CRSV and prevent violent extremism implemented by the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) and IOM. The project used culturally grounded approaches to assist women, who were formerly associated with violent extremist groups, recovering from trauma and provided economic empowerment support to ultimately ensure that the women became active contributors to sustainable peacebuilding in their societies. Survivors received individualised services, such as medical support, referrals, and specialised mental health counselling, and also participated in education, business development, and livelihood skills training to enable them to rebuild their lives, tailored to adapt to each woman’s unique interests, needs, and goals.

Photography by IOM Somalia

Stage 3 - Survivors’ Political Participation in �ٱ��Ƶappbuilding and Development Efforts

The Special Representative supports survivors to become agents of change and travels extensively to meet with CRSV survivors in various situations of concern, including in Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and South America. These conversations with survivors help inform the Special Representative's advocacy efforts with UN Member States, including at the UN Security Council, as well as the strategic priorities and initiatives of their Office.

The UN has also worked to ensure that survivors and service providers are heard and present at the decision-making tables, including at Security Council briefings, political gatherings, and advocacy events.

At the 10th anniversary of the CRSV mandate in 2019, survivors were invited to speak at the UN Headquarters in New York to showcase how they were able to overcome their trauma, become agents of their own change, and participate in wider peacebuilding activities to advance the mandate. Many of these survivors have used their stories to help other survivors, including by founding non-governmental organisations, men’s groups, and associations.

Badryia, a survivor from Iraq: “Nobody can stop me. Not even ISIS.” UN Photo

A women’s shelter in Iraq being opened with advocacy support from Special Representative Patten in 2018. Photo/UNFPA Iraq

Aimé, a survivor from the DRC, has used his experience to form a male survivor-led support group that brings together male survivors of CRSV. UN Photo

Ángela, a survivor from Colombia: “With our empowerment and leadership, we have not only managed to confront stigmatisation and support other victims who see us as an example, we have also become advocates for the rights of girls and women.” UN Photo

15-Year Anniversary

UN Photo

2024 marks the 15-year anniversary of the creation of the UN’s agenda to prevent and respond to CRSV, and specifically the creation of the role of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict. Attention is needed to bolster and reinforce the UN's work on CRSV, specifically in supporting survivors in their journey to recovery and healing. Although this exhibition detailed a potential journey of a survivor, the majority of survivors do not receive any treatment or services in the immediate, short, medium or long term. Many of the survivors who are able to physically recover are still waiting for justice and accountability. It is critical that their stories are heard and their needs are met.

Sponsors and Collaborators

This exhibition, A Conflict-Related Sexual Violence (CRSV) Survivor’s Journey, is presented by the United Nations Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict (UN Action) Network, a coordinated body of 25 UN entities, hosted under the UN Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict. The exhibition was organised in collaboration with frontline service providers, Women’s Protection Advisers, SEMA (the Global Network of Victims and Survivors to End Wartime Sexual Violence), the Dr. Denis Mukwege Foundation, the Government of the Republic of Lithuania, the Government of Japan, the Government of Norway, Bibliothèques Sans Frontières, and VMLY&R.

This exhibit was launched in June 2024

Local category:

Human Rights

A Conflict-Related Sexual Violence (CRSV) Survivor's Journey to Healing

AKAHNJOC — Tue, 21 May 2024 14:40:39 +0000

Teaser image:

Remember.Unite.Renew.

AKAHNJOC — Tue, 06 Feb 2024 19:08:54 +0000

Laurence Niyonangira, Genocide survivor. UN Photo/Manuel Elías

The 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda left unanswered questions across an entire society. How do I live with what I have seen? How do I live with what I have done? Who am I without my community?

Only one option remained – to move forward.

Today, Rwanda is a testament to the power of post-genocide reconciliation. Among the stories of hope is that of Laurence, a survivor, and Xavier, her family’s killer, who now live as friends. Explore their journey, the impact of hate speech and how your actions can make a difference.

Xavier Nemeye, Reformed genocide perpetrator. UN Photo/Manuel Elías

100 Days of Terror

100 days How long the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda lasted in 1994
Around 1 million People killed, mainly Tutsi but also moderate Hutu and Twa
A quarter million People raped and sexually abused
Over 120,000 Perpetrators convicted in the killings

Did you know?

The word “genocide” was first coined by Polish lawyer Rafał (Raphael) Lemkin, following the Holocaust. He led the campaign to have genocide recognised and codified as an international crime.

Determining if genocide occurred is a legal matter. Only a competent court with jurisdiction to try such cases can make the decision, after all the facts are examined.

Laurence Niyonangira survived the genocide.

But 37 of her relatives were killed. She was 20 years old.

Those who killed innocent people got nothing from their crimes. No one can think about doing it again,” says Laurence today.

Propaganda fuels hatred

Tall and thin, Laurence remembers Hutu students at school taunting her that they would “resize” her, echoing a vicious stereotype that Tutsis were “too tall”.

Perished lives

Her father once gave cows to Hutu neighbours, hoping to plant seeds of friendship. But when the genocide began in April 1994, they killed him.

Fleeing for safety

Laurence fled her village carrying one child on her back and heavily pregnant with another. At a checkpoint, overcome by horror, she begged soldiers to kill her, but they refused to “waste” a bullet on a pregnant woman.

Shelter

A young Hutu man and family friend took her in, giving her food and shelter until she could walk south to a refugee camp across the border with Burundi.

As Laurence fled with her children, she promised God that if they survived, she would someday, somehow forgive the killers.

Years later, still imprisoned, Xavier wrote to Laurence confessing to killing her mother and sisters, and asking her forgiveness.

It was the first news Laurence had of their fate, and the shock and grief sent her into a long depression. “It took away my hope that somehow they had survived. But I remembered my promise to forgive.”

Xavier Nemeye was 30 years old when he took part in the genocide.

I have never seen anything so tragic and terrible. Everyone loses,” he reflects. “I share my stories with young people so they can create a different future.” – Xavier Nemeye

Years of propaganda

By spring 1994, Xavier had been influenced by years of propaganda against the Tutsi, sanctioned by the then-government. Xavier believed the lies despite his mother being Tutsi – a secret she hid by marrying a Hutu man – and despite being friends with Tutsi families.

Violence

In April 1994, Xavier joined 15 young men who collected farming tools as weapons. They found a Tutsi woman and two of her daughters – Laurence’s mother and sisters – and beat them to death in a small trench used for ripening bananas.

Shame

Overcome by shame at what he had done, Xavier went home to protect his mother from potential attackers. He never told her the details of his crimes.

Imprisonment and enduring guilt

Imprisoned for years after the genocide, Xavier confessed his guilt and was released. But he thinks constantly about what he did.

We were trained to think of each other as enemies, not to build a relationship. It was dehumanizing. Reconciliation and forgiveness remind you that each life has value.” – Xavier Nemeye

As survivors, we can only heal our wounds with the people who created them.” – Laurence Niyonangira

Uniting through forgiveness

When Laurence first met Xavier after the genocide, the fear was paralysing: “I was so afraid that even if I forgave him, he would come back and kill me,” she remembers. Community meetings and sessions with religious leaders eased tensions.

Xavier began to help her with tasks around her home, which she saw as proof of his genuine repentance. Both she and Xavier describe each other today as friends who meet at family celebrations and lend each other small sums when needed.

The villages are a partnership between Prison Fellowship Rwanda and the Government of Rwanda, with support from the international community.

Unique to Rwanda, the villages are part of the country’s collective efforts to heal wounds and bridge divisions.

Thousands of genocide survivors live next door to reformed perpetrators in eight unity and resilience villages throughout Rwanda.

Their children and grandchildren attend school and play together, living as “Rwandans”.

Laurence and Xavier lived side by side in the Mbyo Unity and Resilience Village.

Justice after the genocide

Xavier is one of more than 120,000 people accused and tried for participating in the genocidal killings. Some perpetrators are still on the run. New mass burial sites continue to be found. People are still missing.

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda

In the aftermath of the genocide, the United Nations Security Council created the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). It indicted nearly 100 high-ranking officials and other individuals responsible for the gravest crimes committed in 1994.

In its landmark “media case”, the ICTR became the first international tribunal to hold members of the media responsible for broadcasts intended to inflame the public to commit genocide.

The National Court System

Rwanda’s national courts prosecuted those accused of planning the genocide or committing the most severe atrocities, including rape. The task was difficult because many judges, lawyers, and other judicial staff were killed during the genocide, and much of the country’s infrastructure was destroyed.

The Gacaca Court System

The sheer number of perpetrators meant that most were sent to traditional community courts called gacaca (pronounced GA-CHA-CHA). In the gacaca system, community-elected judges heard cases on all crimes except planning of genocide. The gacaca courts gave reduced sentences to perpetrators who repented and sought reconciliation with their community by telling the truth about what happened to missing people.

I lost 45 family members in the genocide. At first, there was so much trauma in my heart. I began working on restorative justice in prisons and realized that when offenders were willing to ask forgiveness for what they did, we could bring them together with their victims to seek reconciliation. I never met those who killed my own relatives, but I found hope in this journey.

When I saw people helping each other and crying because they could finally imagine a different life, I knew that peace could contribute to healing.” — Bishop Deo Gashagaza, head of Prison Fellowship Rwanda

We created community spaces for healing, where people can gain a sense of security, social cohesion and trust.

It is not easy – but it is possible. Increasingly, we focus on youth because the trauma has been passed to the younger generation, the children of survivors and perpetrators. They have feelings of shame as well as anger and fear that it could happen again.” — Chantal Ingabire, service provider at Community-Based Sociotherapy

The genocide happened when I was 3 years old…Much of what I learned came from my Mom because my Dad was unable to speak about it until 2017. I see other young people asking lots of questions. Some wonder why they have no relatives. Others have parents in jail. Young people want to know the truth about their past, both the genocide and the values and dignity of our heritage. We are educating [youth] because when you know where you come from, it becomes easier to navigate the future.” — Christian Intwari, founder of Our Past Initiative

The need for reconciliation existed before the genocide, when the social fabric was torn apart under colonialism. Tremendous work since 1994 has helped to overcome the hatred and fear, such as by removing ethnicity from identification cards and enacting pro-poor policies. But challenges remain. We must build resilience to cement the gains made and ensure history does not repeat itself.

There is genocide denial on social media. Many people live with unhealed wounds and unanswered questions, and reconciliation – while advancing – remains a journey." —Révérien Interayamahanga, researcher on reconciliation and resilience with Interpeace

The zigzag symbol on Rwanda’s famous Agaseke, or peace basket, represents women holding hands.

As in many countries and cultures, it’s the women who mend a society after conflict. In Rwanda, in a remarkable display of resilience and solidarity, women overcame traumas to weave together and create thriving artisan cooperatives.

What is genocide?

Greek prefix genos (people, race or tribe), and the Latin suffix cide (killing)

According to international law, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such^*:

(a) killing members of the group;

(b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

^*Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 9 December 1948

Intent to destroy

The legal definition of genocide includes intent to destroy in whole or in part, which is the most difficult element to determine.

To commit genocide, a perpetrator must have a proven intent to destroy a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such.

It is this special intent, or dolus specialis, that makes the crime of genocide so unique.

Did you know?

Events that do not meet the definition of genocide may constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity, which are separate crimes under international law.

War crimes

are serious violations of international humanitarian law during armed conflicts

Crimes against humanity

are committed as a part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population

Dark side of humanity

The 1948 Genocide Convention legally defined the term “genocide” adding to the body of international law on grave abuses of human rights.

Tragically, the world witnessed genocides before 1948, including the Holocaust, which is the state-sponsored, ideologically-driven persecution and murder of six million Jews across Europe and from North Africa, and half a million Roma and Sinti by Nazi Germany (1933–1945) and collaborators. The Nazis also targeted people with disabilities; Slavic peoples (especially Poles and Russians);Black people on racist grounds; and Communists, Socialists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

Since 1948, competent international judicial bodies have determined three instances to have constituted genocide, as legally defined.

Cambodia (1975-1979)

Crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the Geneva conventions for the large-scale violations that occurred during the 1975-79 period in Cambodia.

Under the Khmer Rouge regime, an estimated 1.5 to 2 million people died from starvation, forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings. Among those targeted were an estimated 20,000 ethnic Vietnamese and 100-500,000 Cham Muslims, who were deemed victims of genocide by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC).

The 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda: 7 April-7 July 1994

Around 1 million people were killed during 100 days in 1994, in addition to hundreds of thousands raped and injured. For the first time in history, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) delivered verdicts against persons responsible for committing genocide. The ICTR was also the first institution to recognize rape as a means of committing genocide.

Srebrenica: July 1995

About 8,000 Bosnian Muslim boys and men were killed by Bosnian Serb forces when they overran the town of Srebrenica during the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. The United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) ruled that the execution was a genocide.

Genocides do not start with bullets or concentration camps. They begin with hate speech.

Hate speech is an alarm bell - the louder it rings, the greater the threat of genocide. It precedes and promotes violence.” — Antonio Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General

Hate speech can be a precursor to genocide and related crimes. There are many ways you can take a stand, even if you are not personally the victim of hate speech. You can make a difference.

Change begins with all of us: say #NoToHate

WAYS TO DEAL WITH HATE SPEECH

1. Educate

Engage with your family and friends in conversations about how hate speech can harm societies. Think before you share on social media.

2. Get involved

Become familiar with organizations and the work being done to protect human rights and prevent genocide.

3. Foster a culture of mutual respect

Promote a culture of peace and non-violence in your daily life that includes respect for diversity and non-discrimination. This way we can build societies that are resilient to the risk of genocide.

The Department of Global Communications

wishes to thank the Government of Rwanda, Prison Fellowship Rwanda, the United Nations System in Rwanda, and the Office of the Special Adviser on Genocide Prevention.

Our special thanks to Laurence and Xavier, who have allowed us to tell their story to educate people about the horrors and futility of genocide.

Photo credits: UN Photo/Manuel Elías; Getty Images

7 April marked the start of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

Every year on or around that date, the United Nations organizes commemorative events at UN Headquarters- and around the world.

This exhibit was launched in March 2024

Local category:

Human Rights

Remember. Unite. Renew.

AKAHNJOC — Tue, 06 Feb 2024 18:47:52 +0000

familytree.pdf

Teaser image:

Photography 4 Humanity

AKAHNJOC — Fri, 24 Nov 2023 23:10:21 +0000

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights is the leading UN entity on human rights with a unique mandate to promote and protect all human rights for all people. Under the leadership of the High Commissioner, with a staff of 1,300 working in more than 100 countries, it aims to make human rights a reality in the lives of people everywhere.

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights

Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, whatever our nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, language, or any other status. Everyone is entitled to these rights, without discrimination.

Human Rights are Universal

The principle of universality of human rights is the cornerstone of international human rights law. This principle, as first emphasized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, has been reiterated in numerous international human rights conventions, declarations, and resolutions. The 1993 Vienna World Conference on Human Rights noted that "All human rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent and interrelated."

75^thAnniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

In 2023, the 75^th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is being celebrated as a milestone in the history of human rights. Drafted by representatives with different legal and cultural backgrounds from all regions of the world, the Declaration was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948 as a common standard of achievements for all peoples and all nations. It sets out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected and has been translated into over 500 languages.

The United Nations and Human Rights

The advancement of all human rights, including the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, is a key purpose of the United Nations, which supports mechanisms established to promote and protect these rights and directly assists states in carrying out their human rights obligations.

"The climate crisis is the biggest threat to our survival as a species and is already threatening human rights around the world."

- António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations

About Photography 4 Humanity

Photography 4 Humanity calls upon photographers around the world to bring to life the power of human rights. With compelling images that illustrate courage, despair, hope, injustice, compassion, and human rights victories and failures, large and small, this project aims to inspire people to get involved and take a stand for human rights. Based in Boulder Colorado, Photography 4 Humanity is an initiative led by world-renowned photographers that works with Eminent Jurors to help select top images from around the world to be featured in the annual Photography 4 Humanity exhibit by the United Nations. For more information and a list of Eminent Jurists, visit: Photography4Humanity.com

About Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance

The Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance addresses climate change as the human rights crisis that leading scientists and human rights advocates, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, have declared it to be. The initiative supports effective, human rights-based implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on climate change. For more information visit: righthererightnow.global

The Collaboration

In 2022 the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance started to collaborate with Photography 4 Humanity to feature images of people affected by climate change.

Winning photo: The seashore is no longer here. School girls stand in an abandoned seaport town next to an installation showing where the Aral Sea used to come. Photo/Kristina Varaksina. Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan (May, 2022)

Photography 4 Humanity calls on photographers around the world to bring to life the power of human rights through their images. Highlighting the most compelling human rights imagery - illustrating courage, despair, hope, injustice, compassion in ways small and large, the photos serve to inspire people to get involved and take a stand for human rights.

Photography 4 Humanity encourages amateur and professional photographers alike, to submit images for an annual competition where the winner and top 10 finalists have their photographs exhibited by the United Nations globally via un.org.

Photography 4 Humanity, with the support of the UN Human Rights Office, call upon photographers around the world to capture images of people affected by climate change.

These images depict climate change as a human rights crisis, as women, children, minorities, the poor and marginalized suffer disproportionately as the climate catastrophe escalates.

The exhibit is developed to highlight the work of top photographers through the Photography 4 Humanity Global Prize Competition, and to inspire photographers to document the power of human rights around the world.

The exhibit is created and organized by Photography 4 Humanity with the support of UN Human Rights Office.

FINALISTS

The last hope

Photo/Sourav Das. West Bengal, India (June, 2022)

A source of drinking water is being taken by the sea.

Mother and daughter hoping for rain

Photo/Joydeep Mukherjee. Bali Island, Sandarbans, India (September, 2022)

Climate change is a pressing issue causing concern for those who rely on agriculture to feed their families.

Running through the storm for water

Photo/Peter Ndung'u. Amboseli, Kenya (July, 2022)

A girl runs to collect water through a climate induced dust storm sweeping through Kenya's Amboseli National Park.

After the storm

Photo/Nguyen Ngoc Hai. Phu Quoc Island, Viet Nam (September, 2022)

Funeral procession

Stand off

Photo/Ingmar Björn Nolting. Lützerath, Germany (January, 2023)

Climate activists blocking an excavator on the edge of the Garzweiler II open-pit coal mine.

Bush fire

Photo/Lalliot Théo. Livingstone, Zambia (July, 2022)

A bush fire erupts in Makalu N'guzu.

Displaced by drought then flood

Photo/Esmatullah Habibian. Herat, Afghanistan (June, 2022)

A family who migrated to Herat due to extreme drought, have their tents flooded.

Following the earthquake

Photo/Sayed Habib Bidell. Paktika Province, Afghanistan (June, 2022)

A violent dust storm follows a devastating earthquake.

The sinking Sundarbans mangrove forest

Photo/Supratim Bhattacharjee. Mousuni Island, Sundarbans, India (September, 2022)

Seawater breaches the embankment in Mousuni Island and enters the cultivated land on September 9, 2022.

Fragments of faith still remain

Photo/Pubarun Basu. Malda, West Bengal, India (February, 2022)

Amidst the rubble of his broken mosque caused by flooding, Ajahar still prays.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Typhoon Hinnamnor

Photo/Kim hee-chul. Pohang-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do, Republic of Korea (September, 2022)

Firefighters rescue a woman from a flooded underground parking lot.

The future is here

Photo/Supratim Bhattacharjee. Satjelia Island, Sundarbans, India (September, 2023)

Solar panels reach the Sundarbans mangrove forests by boat.

Water guardians

Photo/Esteban Biba. San Pedro La Laguna, Guatemala (April, 2023)

Indigenous women collect plastic polluting their lake and land.

Drought

Photo/Wadaa Abdul Kareem Faleh. Nasiriya, Iraq (July, 2022)

A man walks through the middle of the drought stricken Chabayish marshes.

Inventory of the sea

Photo/Camila Hermes. Capão da Canoa, Brazil (October, 2022)

A range of trash that washes up on a beach in southern Brazil every day.

The Conselice flood

Photo/Cesare Barillà. Conselice, Italy (May, 2023)

Unprecedented flooding in the town of Conselice.

Sustainable impact

Photo/Mouneb Taim. Amsterdam, Kingdom of the Netherlands (February, 2022)

To reduce carbon emissions, Dutch climate policy encourages cycling.

Vegetable garden

Photo/Domenico Fasano. Ziguinchor, Senegal (May, 2022)

Women raise food and funding for their families through collective gardens.

Drying planet

Photo/Sandipani Chattopadhyay. West Bengal, India (June, 2022)

Local people in Purulia bathe and drink from a drying riverbed.

Rising sea

Photo/Eddie Jim. Kioa Island, Fiji (May, 2023)

A woman abandons her family home fearing the sea will continually rise.

Demolition

Photo/Ribhu Chatterjee. Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India (August, 2022)

The aftermath of the Supertech twin tower demolition produced toxic smog.

Cooking through the flood

Photo/Mohammad Omar Faruk. Chittagong, Bangladesh (August, 2022)

Annual monsoon flooding plagues a hotel which must continue to provide meals to its residents.

Artificial coral reefs are created

Photo/Christian Barbe. Mananjary, Madagascar (July, 2022)

A coral reef that used to be a habitat for octopus is being rebuilt by a local fisherman.

Africa blues

Photo/Giulia Piermartiri. Mozambique (June, 2022)

Since Mozambique is one of the most climate-vulnerable countries in Africa, the photo projection on this home is a sign of what’s to come.

A handful of water

Photo/Ekrem Sahin. Burdur, Türkiye (August, 2022)

Migratory birds try to survive by drinking polluted water that stains the land as the drought gets worse.

Watching the world burn

Photo/Bernard Kalu. Lagos, Nigeria (February, 2022)

People silently watching a landfill fire are a metaphor for those who stand by and watch climate change unfold.

Australian bush fires

Photo/Thomas Beach. Melbourne, Australia (April, 2022)

Flying through smoke, the bush fires suddenly come into view.

Solidarity

Photo/Michele Lapini. Forlì, Italy (May, 2023)

Volunteers from Bologna cleaning a chandelier shop following deadly flooding in Forlì.

Landscape revealed

Photo/Anna Korbut. Switzerland (July, 2023)

People walk on the Morena landscape that was revealed when the glacier melted.

From death springs life

Photo/Enoch Anyane. Ashanti Region, Ghana (January, 2023)

A tree planted to replace another.

This exhibit was launched in December 2023

Local category:

Human Rights

Photography 4 Humanity

AKAHNJOC — Thu, 16 Nov 2023 22:47:11 +0000

Teaser image:

Responsibility for Memory: The Role of Art in Holocaust Remembrance

AKAHNJOC — Mon, 23 Oct 2023 16:22:21 +0000

Exhibit
Credits

This exhibit is organized by the Museum Center for Persecuted Arts, and is part of The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme‘s commemoration of the November Pogrom (9-10 November 1938).

Exhibition by

Museum Center for Persecuted Arts, Solingen
Yad Vashem, Jerusalem

In cooperation with

MOCAK Museum for Contemporary Arts Krakow
Boris Lurie Art Foundation

Curators

Eliad Moreh-Rosenberg
Jürgen Joseph Kaumkötter

Design

Timon Wißfeld – Gutes im Falschen

Photographs by

Jörg von Bruchhausen
CICS – Cologne Institute of Conservation Sciences
Museum am Dom, Dioceses of Würzburg, Art Collection Foundation

Interview with Yehuda Bacon by

Julia Riedhammer
Christine Thalmann (rbb. Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg)

Supported by the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Permanent Mission of Germany to the United Nations. Museum Center for Persecuted Arts is part of the Cultural Heritage Network of the Landschaftsverband Rheinland

Yad Vashem

Spanning some 45 acres across Jerusalem’s Mount of Remembrance, Yad Vashem is the world center for Holocaust education, remembrance, research and documentation. For seven decades, Yad Vashem has dedicated itself to perpetuating the memory of the Jewish men, women and children who were murdered by Nazi Germany and its collaborators, and to passing on the legacy of the survivors. Its state-of-the-art museums, world-class research and education centers, and expansive archives and libraries provide an unparalleled venue for inter-generational learning and contemplation, reflected also in its comprehensive online resources utilized by millions of people around the globe.

Drawing on the memories of the past, Yad Vashem seeks to meaningfully impart the legacy of the Shoah for generations to come. Yad Vashem’s Art Collection comprises close to 14,000 works of art, half of which were created during the Holocaust. These provide a unique perspective based on the individual’s experience. Each of these works is, in essence, an irreplaceable personal testimony of human existence during the Holocaust.

Museum Center for Persecuted Arts

The Museum Center for Persecuted Arts is devoted exclusively to the persecuted arts of the twentieth century up to the present day. Its collection and exhibitions focus on works from the fields of the visual arts, literature, music and theater, particularly those created by individuals persecuted by the Nazi regime. Through its multidisciplinary exhibitions, the Center for Persecuted Arts fills a gap in the museum landscape by drawing attention to the diverse expressions of overt resistance or defiance by artists and writers in authoritarian regimes, thus addressing an important self-empowerment independent of the art canon and the art market. Through artistic articulations, the museum demonstrates how the existential and life-threatening experiences of flight, expulsion, persecution and exile can be described and overcome, then and now. The museum’s inaugural exhibition, Der Tod hat nicht das letzte Wort (Death Does Not Have the Last Word) in the Bundestag in Berlin in 2015 programmatically demonstrated the museum’s orientation: emphasis on the continued importance of remembrance and survivors’ commitment to the representation and analysis of the Holocaust.

Yehuda Bacon, Woman with child at the barbed wire fence of a concentration camp

Yehuda Bacon, Before the Transport to Terezín, 1945

Yehuda Bacon

This exhibition highlights the importance of art for Holocaust remembrance today. It presents three generations of artists whose lives were impacted by the Holocaust, and whose art was shaped by this experience.

Organized chronologically in seven sections, the exhibition revolves around artist and witness Yehuda Bacon (b. 1929). The display begins with German Jewish artists such as Ludwig Meidner and Felix Nussbaum, who responded to the November Pogrom of 1938 in their painting, foreseeing the destruction of European Jewry, and continues with artworks from the Terezín ghetto. Included are Karel Fleischmann (1897–1944), who gave Yehuda Bacon his first drawing lessons in the ghetto, and painter, poet and art teacher Peter Kien (1919–1944). Other prisoners such as Friedl Dicker-Brandeis also taught the boys and girls in Terezín. The work of Boris Lurie (1924-2008) is displayed as are works created after 1945 by other artists, who like Bacon, were the only survivors of their families.

The main section focuses on Yehuda Bacon, from the drawings created immediately after his liberation recording his experiences in Auschwitz Birkenau German Nazi Concentration and Death Camp (1940-1945), to the paintings reflecting his own mature style. In addition to his artistic career, Bacon kept his oath to testify to the world about the crimes of the Holocaust and served as a witness at the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem in 1961 and at the Auschwitz trials in Frankfurt am Main in 1964.

In parallel, Bacon taught art for 35 years at the Bezalel art academy, initiating a generation of young artists into the secrets of draftsmanship and printing techniques. Sigalit Landau was one of these young artists. The exhibition thus ends with this internationally-acclaimed Israeli artist, daughter of a Holocaust survivor, who refers to the Holocaust with a personal, yet universal approach. Ultimately, the artistic thread connecting teachers to their students echoes the transmission of memory from the Holocaust victims and survivors to the following generations, emphasizing the power of visual testimony in the commitment to Holocaust remembrance and our responsibility to educate about its relevance.

This exhibition forms part of the 2023 programme of Holocaust remembrance and education organized by The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme. Member States of the United Nations established The Holocaust and the UN Outreach Programme (General Assembly resolution 60/7). The Outreach Programme is an expression of the commitment of the UN to fighting hatred, and to contribute to building a world in which all can live in peace and with dignity.

The Holocaust (Shoah)

The Holocaust (Shoah) was the anti-Jewish campaign initiated and implemented by Nazi Germany during the years 1933-1945. Its culmination was an unprecedented and systematic genocide that aimed to totally eradicate Judaism and annihilate the Jewish people.

The campaign’s primary motivation was an antisemitic, racist ideology, which asserted that the Jews were a danger to Germany and to humankind as a whole. According to this ideology, the Jews were parasites who exploited non-Jewish peoples and disseminated ideas about human equality perceived as undermining the natural and ostensibly appropriate hierarchy between the so-called “races”.

From 1933 onwards, Nazi Germany implemented anti-Jewish policies: initially, they defined who were Jews, stripped them of most of their rights, their professional status and their property, and acted to isolate them socially. During the Second World War, anti-Jewish measures escalated, both in Germany and in occupied and Germany-allied Europe, and included banishment from the general population by marking, segregating or concentrating Jewish people in ghettos, forced labour, starvation and more. These actions gained support in Germany and other countries, and led to the Jews’ removal from civil, social and economic life in their countries of residence.

The systematic murder of Jews began in the summer of 1941 with the invasion of the Soviet Union, and Nazi policy gradually developed into a comprehensive genocide termed “The Final Solution to the Jewish Question”. By the end of the war, nearly six million Jews had been murdered.

In addition to the policy to annihilate all Jews, the Nazis targeted others. Germans with disabilities were the first victims of organized murder; several million Soviet POWs (Prisoners of War) died through brutal treatment or were murdered; homosexual men and political dissenters were frequently interned in camps, where many died; the Poles were oppressed by their German occupiers and in particular Polish elites were imprisoned in camps or murdered outright; many Germans of African descent were subjected to sterilization; and the Sinti and Roma were subjected to genocide.

Felix Nussbaum

The November Pogrom 1938

Born in Osnabrück in 1904, Felix Nussbaum studied art in Hamburg in 1922 and a year later continued his studies at the Lewin-Funcke School in Berlin, where he enrolled in the class of Ludwig Meidner. Following the Nazis‘ rise to power, he wandered through Europe and in 1935 sought refuge in Belgium for himself and his partner, the artist Felka Platek. Initially, the couple lived in Ostend; two years later, they moved to Brussels. Following the German occupation of Belgium in May 1940, Nussbaum was arrested and interned in the Saint-Cyprien camp in southern France. Several months later, he escaped and returned to Brussels, where he went into hiding with his wife. He created dozens of artworks reflecting the anguish of the persecuted Jews. Only with the help of friends, who secretly safeguarded the works, did these survive the war. In June 1944 the couple was denounced, arrested and transferred to the Mechelen camp. In July they were deported on the last transport from Belgium to Auschwitz Birkenau German Nazi Concentration and Death Camp (1940-1945), where they were murdered.

Photo of Felix Nussbaum at 26 June 1942. Property of the Nussbaum Family

The face of the 38-year-old artist on this passport photo reveals how much the artist aged in the years of occupation in Brussels: his cheeks are emaciated, he has lost his hair and his anxious gaze reflects the hopelessness of his situation.

Rue Triste, 1938, signed and inscribed on the reverse: “TROSTLOSE STRASSE Felix Nussbaum”. Felix Nussbaum created Rue Triste and The Great Destruction around the turn of 1938/39 while in exile in Brussels. These two works by Felix Nussbaum are the only pieces in his artwork that refer directly to the pogroms of 9 and 10 November in Germany in 1938. Private Collection, on permanent loan to the Center for Persecuted Arts (Facsimile)

Ludwig Meidner (1884-1966), In Memory of our Destroyed Synagogues in Germany 10/11/1938, 1939. Ludwig Meidner (1884–1966) was a teacher and friend of Felix Nussbaum. In 1939, Meidner and his wife Else managed to flee to England and thus survived. In this work, Meidner reacts to the riots and violence against the Jewish community. In an inscription on the back of the work, he unequivocally dedicates it to “the memory of our destroyed synagogues in Germany” (Chalk and charcoal on paper 70.7 × 55 cm, reproduction). Collection of the Yad Vashem Art Museum. Photo/Yad Vashem Art Museum, Jerusalem

Infrared and X-ray reflectogram of Rue Triste
CICS – Cologne Institute of Conservation Sciences

The technological examination and research conducted by the Center for Persecuted Arts enabled it to date Rue Triste to 1939. It disclosed that the painting behind it shares the same composition as The Great Destruction (version II) and depicts a similar apocalyptic scene. Felix Nussbaum thus painted over the field of ruins and expressed his feelings toward Germany by representing the city of his birth as a deserted, threatening place.

The X-ray image made at CICS – Cologne Institute of Conservation Sciences reveals a fully elaborated painting very similar to The Great Destruction (version II).

Through an infrared image made at CICS, we can look under the uppermost, impasto layer of paint and see the cat taking up an attack position in front of a pile of rubble. In the infrared image, we can surmise that the “pile of rubble” consists of window frames and broken glass. It blocks the cat’s path. The National Socialist press trivialized the pogrom night of 1938 as a “Kristallnacht” (Night of Broken Glass), for which the pile of destroyed windows can serve as a symbol.

Felix Nussbaum, The Great Destruction, Brussels, c. 1939 (India ink and wash on paper 54.5 x 67.5 cm).

Collection of the Yad Vashem Art Museum, Jerusalem, Gift of Roger-David Katz and his wife Louba Moscicka, Brussels. In memory of their family members who perished in the Holocaust. Photo/Yad Vashem Art Museum, Jerusalem

Peter Kien

Holocaust Art

Peter Kien, born in Varnsdorf in 1919, was a German-speaking Czech Jew. In 1936, Kien began to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague and at a graphics workshop under Prof. Hugo Steiner-Prag. In 1939, as a result of the Nuremberg Laws, Kien was expelled from the academy, but taught art within the Jewish community. The Nuremberg Laws were a set of discriminatory laws enacted by Nazi Germany in 1935 that defined anyone as Jewish as a separate “race” and enforced racial segregation and discrimination against Jews, stripping them of their citizenship and civil rights.

On 4 December 1941, Kien, his wife Ilse Stránsky and his parents were deported to the Terezín ghetto and transit camp, where he continued to paint and worked in the “drafting office”, which was part of the Technical Department supplying materials for the Jewish Council. Jewish prisoners taught the boys and girls in Terezín. 5,000 children‘s drawings have survived from the painting lessons, many of them from the courses conducted by Friedl Dicker-Brandeis. Most of the children‘s drawings are archived in the Jewish Museum in Prague. In the “drafting office”, Peter Kien met fellow prisoner Helga Wolfenstein, and a close relationship developed between the two. He wrote the libretto for the opera, The Emperor of Atlantis, as well as poetry and plays.

On 16 October 1944, Kien was deported together with his wife and their parents to Auschwitz Birkenau German Nazi Concentration and Death Camp (1940-1945), where they were all murdered. Before his deportation from Terezín, Kien had entrusted his drawings to Helga Wolfenstein. She survived the war and told the story of their friendship and artistic complicity.

Peter Kien, Self-portrait, Prague, 1936. Památník Terezín. (Pencil drawing and watercolour on cardboard, 40 × 30 cm, reproduction). Photo/Museum Center for Persecuted Arts

Peter Kien, Self-portrait, caricature with Helga Wolfenstein, Terezín Ghetto, 1941-1944 (Pen and ink drawing on paper, 34 × 24.4 cm, reproduction). Památník Terezín, Photo/Museum Center for Persecuted Arts

Peter Kien, View of Terezín, Terezín Ghetto, 1944 (Gouache on paper 30.2 × 44 cm, reproduction). Collection of the Yad Vashem Art Museum, Permanent loan of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Los Angeles. Photo/Yad Vashem Art Museum, Jerusalem

Helga Wolfenstein King - Peter Kien Painting at Terezín, Terezín, Ghetto, 1943 (Ink wash on paper. 11 × 13.7 cm, reproduction). Collection of the Yad Vashem Art Museum, Acquisition, courtesy of Barbara and Lewis Shrensky, Washington D.C. Photo/Yad Vashem Art Museum, Jerusalem

Group of artists in the studio of the Weinberg Synagogue, Prague, which Peter Kien (center) ran between 1938 and 1941. Památník Terezín, Photo/Museum Center for Persecuted Arts

Peter Kien, Portrait of Jan Burka Age 16, Prague, 1940 (Oil on canvas, double sided-painting, 54 × 42 cm). Collection of the Yad Vashem Art Museum, Acquisition, courtesy of the bequest of Friedel Stern. Photo/Yad Vashem Art Museum, Jerusalem

Peter Kien, Portrait of Ilse Stránská - Kien (1915-1944), Prague, c. 1940 (Oil on canvas, double sided-painting, 54 × 42 cm). Collection of the Yad Vashem Art Museum, Acquisition, courtesy of the bequest of Friedel Stern. Photo/Yad Vashem Art Museum, Jerusalem

Boris Lurie

Survivors as Witnesses

Boris Lurie was born in 1924 to a Jewish family in Leningrad and grew up in Riga. He and his father survived several ghettos and concentration camps, including those in Stutthof and Buchenwald. His mother, grandmother, sister and childhood sweetheart were murdered in a mass shooting in the Rumbula forest near Riga in 1941. These experiences had a lasting effect on Boris Lurie’s life and art. In 1946, he immigrated to New York with his father. In 1959, together with a group of artist friends, he founded the NO!art movement, which opposed Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art, but above all the commercialization of art, and critically addressed issues such as racism, sexism and consumer culture.

Disseminating the Truth about the Crimes of the Holocaust

Boris Lurie, Portrait of My Mother Before Shooting, 1947 (Oil on canvas, 90 × 65 cm, reproduction). Boris Lurie Art Foundation

Boris Lurie, ca. 1946 (Ink paper 10 × 10.8 cm ). Boris Lurie Art Foundation

Boris Lurie, Prisoners Returning from Work, 1946 (Oil on Masonite, 50 × 70 cm). Boris Lurie Art Foundation

Jonasz Stern

Survivors as Witnesses

In the painting Talith over Kalusc by Jonasz Stern (1904–1988), the prayer shawl hovers over the landscape of the shtetl evoking a burial shroud, or a messenger of death from a painting by Marc Chagall. Of the approximately 7,000 Jews of Kalusc, only seventeen survived the Holocaust - Jonasz Stern was one of them. Stern escaped during a transport to the Bełżec death camp and returned to the Lwów ghetto, renamed the “Lemberg ghetto” by the occupying German forces, where he taught drawing to boys and girls.

On 1 June 1943, during the liquidation of the ghetto, he survived a mass shooting. He was not hit by the bullets and hid among the bodies of those who had been shot. He fled to Budapest and moved to Krakow in 1945. From 1954 to 1974, he was a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. He participated in the organization of the so-called “Second Krakow Group” and was its chairman for many years. He never forgot his experiences in the Holocaust and recorded them in impressive series of graphics.

Painting the Crimes of the Holocaust

Jonasz Stern, Kalusz in 1942 (Tallith over Kalusz), 1988 (Assemblage on canvas, 90 × 70 cm, reproduction). Collection of the Yad Vashem Art Museum, Jerusalem, Gift of Sonia Dombrowski, Düsseldorf. Photo/Yad Vashem Art Museum, Jerusalem

Jonasz Stern, Lemberg Ghetto, 1948, titled and dated in pencil, signed in pen (later) “Stern Jonasz” (Woodcuts, 23 × 31.6 cm). MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art Krakow

Jonasz Stern, Lemberg Ghetto, 1948, titled and dated in pencil, signed in pen (later) “Stern Jonasz” (Woodcuts, 23 × 31.6 cm). Museum Center for Persecuted Arts

Yehuda Bacon

Dialogue Through Art

Yehuda Bacon was born in 1929 in Moravská Ostrava, Czechoslovakia. In 1942, he and his family were deported to the Terezín ghetto. The adult prisoners organized cultural programs for the children, and Yehuda Bacon was given drawing lessons with other boys and girls. In 1943, he was deported to the “Family Camp” at Auschwitz Birkenau German Nazi Concentration and Death Camp (1940-1945). In 1944, Bacon was transferred to the men’s camp, and assigned to a group that transported goods to different parts of the camp. As one of the few survivors of the death march to Mauthausen, he was liberated at the Gunskirchen camp. In 1946, he immigrated to Mandate Palestine, where he studied at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem. Bacon’s experiences during the Holocaust deeply influenced his art, which expresses not only the suffering of the past, but also his return to life.

Immediately after his liberation, he made small sketches of the crematoria and gas chambers of Auschwitz Birkenau German Nazi Concentration and Death Camp (1940-1945), which were later used as evidence at the Eichmann trial of 1961, in which he personally testified. He was also a witness at the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial, which took place from 1963- 1965. Bacon remained a dedicated educator well into his old age, working to ensure that the memory of the Holocaust would be ingrained in the minds of future generations. His interactions with students, educators and the public have left an indelible mark on Holocaust education. One of his most famous students is the contemporary artist, Sigalit Landau.

16-year-old Yehuda Bacon in Prague in April 1946. Civic Foundation for Persecuted Arts

Witness Testimonies

Yehuda Bacon demonstrated his commitment to justice and the power of eyewitness testimony at the Eichmann Trial in Jerusalem (1961) and Auschwitz Trial in Frankfurt am Main (1964).

“What does it mean, hope? I knew exactly that like everyone, of course I will die in the end. But still I asked the people from the crematorium, ‘Please tell me your story, please explain to me what that is.‘ And they said, ‘What do you need to know it, nobody will survive here, that’s clear.‘ And I knew that they can burn my body, but in each of us is a part which existed before we were born and will never die.” – Gallery talk between Yehuda Bacon and Eliad Moreh-Rosenberg, Yad Vashem Art Museum, 11 July 2016

Interview with Yehuda Bacon by Julia Riedhammer and Christine Thalmann (rbb. Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg) December 2019.

“I was for a long time a teacher, so what does it mean to be a teacher? You give only the text? Or you give a part of yourself? And that‘s the most difficult thing, to educate. When we are young we have to take, but then, we have to give. It‘s like a pipe, you take and you give. And the artist is the one who can deeply go to the roots, to the common roots, and bring them up to the tree of life. I think everyone has a personal duty, [and should ask oneself] what can I do with this life?” – Gallery talk between Yehuda Bacon and Eliad Moreh-Rosenberg, Yad Vashem Art Museum, 11 July 2016

“I had to be a witness. I had to speak for the children who didn‘t survive. I had to do my duty, my responsibility.” – Yehuda Bacon

Drawing of the young Yehuda Bacon

Yehuda Bacon, 1945 On the arm projecting into the picture, Bacon inscribed his own prisoner number: 168194 (Drawing, 20.8 × 29.7 cm). Museum am Dom, Diocese of Würzburg, Art Collection Foundation

Yehuda Bacon, Before the Transport to Terezín, 1945 (Watercolor and ink on paper, 21.8 × 29.7 cm, reproduction). Collection of the Yad Vashem Art Museum, Jerusalem. Photo/Yad Vashem Art Museum, Jerusalem

Yehuda Bacon, To the Man who Restored my Belief in Humanity, 1945 (Gouache, black chalk and pencil on paper, 22.1 × 30 cm, reproduction). Collection of the Yad Vashem Art Museum, Jerusalem. Photo/Yad Vashem Art Museum, Jerusalem

This work is dedicated to the Czech educator Pitter Přemysl, who worked to save Jewish and non-Jewish children during and after the Holocaust and was recognized as a Righteous Among the Nations in 1964.

Yehuda Bacon (Aquarell, 10 × 20 cm, reproduction). Museum am Dom Würzburg, Diocese of Würzburg, Art Collection Foundation. Photo/Art Collection Foundation

Yehuda Bacon, Drawing (Ink and watercolor on paper, 15 × 9 cm). Private collection

Yehuda Bacon, Woman with child at the barbed wire fence of a concentration camp (signed Yehuda Bacon) (Drawing, 21.8 × 16.2 cm, reproduction). Museum am Dom Würzburg, Diocese of Würzburg, Art Collection Foundation. Photo/Art Collection Foundation

Yehuda Bacon, Recollections from Auschwitz In Remembrance of the 20.5.44 Transport, Crematorium No.3 & 4, The Transport Arrives, 1945 (Charcoal on paper, 23 × 31 cm, reproduction). Collection of the Yad Vashem Art Museum, Acquisition, courtesy of the bequest of Friedel Stern. Photo/Yad Vashem Art Museum, Jerusalem

Yehuda Bacon, Self-portrait, 1946 (Brush in ink on paper, 28.2 × 21 cm, reproduction). Museum am Dom Würzburg, Diocese of Würzburg, Art Collection Foundation. Photo/Art Collection Foundation

Yehuda Bacon, Self-portrait with prisoner‘s number, 1946/47 (Brush in ink on paper, 59.8 × 41.3 cm, reproduction). Museum am Dom Würzburg, Diocese of Würzburg, Art Collection Foundation. Photo/Art Collection Foundation

Yehuda Bacon, 1946 (Drawing, 29.8 × 22.1 cm, reproduction). Museum am Dom Würzburg, Diocese of Würzburg, Art Collection Foundation. Photo/Art Collection Foundation

Yehuda Bacon, (Drawing, 16.3 × 9.7 cm, reproduction). Museum am Dom Würzburg, Diocese of Würzburg, Art Collection Foundation. Photo/Art Collection Foundation

On the second anniversary of his father’s death in Auschwitz Birkenau German Nazi Concentration and Death Camp (1940-1945), the artist drew a portrait of his father Israel Bacon rising from a smoking chimney. On the right, Bacon noted the exact date and time when his father was murdered, along with some 7,000 other Czech Jews: “22:00 10.VII.44”.

Yehuda Bacon, In Memory of the Czech Transport to the Gas Chambers, 1945–1946 (Charcoal on paper, 41 × 32.5 cm, reproduction). Photo/Yad Vashem Art Museum, Jerusalem

Yehuda Bacon, Self-portrait, 1946 (Brush in ink, opaque white on paper, 51 × 38,6 cm, reproduction). Museum am Dom Würzburg, Diocese of Würzburg, Art Collection Foundation. Photo/Art Collection Foundation

Yehuda Bacon, Self-portrait, 1948 (Gouache on paper, 41 × 32 cm, reproduction). Museum am Dom Würzburg, Diocese of Würzburg, Art Collection Foundation. Photo/Art Collection Foundation

“And the artist is the one who can deeply go to the roots, to the common roots, and bring them up to the tree of life.” - Yehuda Bacon

Yehuda Bacon, Portrait drawing (signed Yehuda Bacon) (Drawing, 26.8 × 18.8 cm, reproduction). Museum am Dom Würzburg, Diocese of Würzburg, Art Collection Foundation. Photo/Art Collection Foundation

Karel Fleischmann

Teacher of Yehuda Bacon in Terezín

Karel Fleischmann The Food Queue, Terezín Ghetto, 1942 (Watercolor, India ink and wash on paper, 9 × 10.7 cm, reproduction). Collection of the Yad Vashem Art Museum, Jerusalem, Gift of the Prague Committee for Documentation, Prague, courtesy of Ze‘ev and Alisa Shek, Caesarea. Photo/Yad Vashem Art Museum, Jerusalem

Sigalit Landau

Generational Impact

Sigalit Landau was born in Jerusalem in 1969 and grew up near the Hebrew University on Mount Scopus. Her father is a survivor of the Nazi labour camp in Bukovina. Her maternal grandparents were Austrian Jewish refugees who immigrated to England and were interned there as enemy aliens. Yehuda Bacon was Sigalit Landau’s first drawing teacher, and she recalls him with much gratitude and affection. Today, she is an influential artist and her work is shown in major museums and venues worldwide. For an exhibition in the German Bundestag in 2015 she created a work of art that, on the one hand, was intended to recall the presentation of the shoes of the murdered that can be seen in the exhibition at the Auschwitz Birkenau German Nazi Concentration and Death Camp (1940–1945). On the other hand, the work symbolizes the re-emergence of families from the few survivors of the Holocaust. The installation is entitled, Victory of Memory – Island of Shoes.

An almond tree in full bloom fills the screen. Suddenly the treetop is shaken harshly, the branches arch and bow while petals fall from the flowers, filling the frame and floating through the air to the ground. The branches’ monotonous rocking implements a simple cinematic effect. That which has been shaken, damaged and violated is being repaired. The seamless beauty of art seemingly undoes violence.

The Victory of Memory

“As infants we walk bare feet, free from protection and interruption. But soon this comes to an end. For most of the rest of our lives we walk with our feet wrapped and protected. We recognize the concept of piling of objects and clothing, and especially as Jews it is always a difficult concept to grasp and digest. Piles of shoes, mountains of shoes, picked and ripped out, shoes of grandchildren, grandparents, rabbis, and shoes of hard working people, standing inside them, restless...” – Sigalit Landau

Sigalit Landau collects hundreds of pairs of shoes and puts them in a pile, as an island, inside the sea of salt. The sea wraps them in countless layers, protects them from another disaster, a perpetual process. Shoes that lived and died, and maybe now will get a new meaning, one with an eternal dimension. Sigalit Landau‘s mountain evokes a memorial, an island of remembrance in a sea of death. It beckons the viewer closer for reflection and meditation. Sigalit Landau created this artwork for the opening exhibition of the Museum Center for Persecuted Arts. It was first shown in the German Bundestag in Berlin in 2015.

Sigalit Landau, Photo of the installation Victory of Memory – Island of Shoes, 2015, (Shoes, Salt, 300 × 300 cm, reproduction). MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow

Father and Tufik - Frederick (Simha) Landau, b.1940, Vatra Dornei, Bukovina, Romania

“When Freddy was about three years old, my grandparents discovered to their horror that their son was filching food from their meager store of supplies to feed a dog named Tufik. Freddy’s parents could barely feed Freddy and his older brother, the late Yisrael Landau. I am sure they were furious, and obviously Tufik‘s feeding was summarily stopped. My father used to tell and retell the story of “his” special dog, and would mention this episode throughout my entire childhood. He would imitate his call to the dog, "Tufik, Tufik, nah! Nah!"

Sigalit Landau, Father and Tufik, 2014 (Bronze cast, 22 × 25 × 14 cm, reproduction). Collection of the Yad Vashem Art. Museum, Jerusalem, Gift of the artist. Photo/Yad Vashem Art Museum, Jerusalem

This exhibit was launched in November 2023

Local category:

Human Rights

Responsibility for Memory: The Role of Art in Holocaust Remembrance

AKAHNJOC — Tue, 10 Oct 2023 13:23:07 +0000

UN Holocaust

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UN Introduction

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UN Bacon

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UN Kien

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UN Lurie

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UN Landau

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UN Bacon Bildbeschreibung

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UN Bacon Zitate

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un_victory_of_memory.mp3

un_stern.mp3

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un_nussbaum_rue_triste.mp3

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un_tufik.mp3

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Teaser image:

Stories of Survival and Remembrance - A call to action for genocide prevention

AKAHNJOC — Fri, 10 Mar 2023 22:53:30 +0000

"Where we see people facing systematic discrimination or becoming targets of violence simply because of who they are, because of their identity, we must act – both to defend those at immediate risk and those who could be in jeopardy in the future. By promoting a culture of peace and non-violence that includes respect for diversity and non-discrimination, we can build societies that are resilient to the risk of genocide."

United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres

Objects and Artefacts

The objects in this exhibition reflect the lives of their one-time owners - their childhoods, their homes, their cultures – and the impact of war, trauma, displacement and exile on these lives. The objects survived the Holocaust, genocide and other atrocity crimes in Cambodia, Srebrenica and Rwanda. The objects are remains from a lost world. Dislodged from their original surroundings, these seemingly ordinary objects are now storytellers. They represent futures that were forever altered.

A call to Action

The United Nations was established over 75 years ago in response to the atrocity crimes committed during the Second World War. Preventing genocide remains as critical today as it ever did. This exhibition is a call to action and reminds us of the need to build a world in which justice prevails, and in which all people are equal in dignity and in rights.

In 1948, genocide was recognized as a crime under international law by the United Nations General Assembly with the adoption of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. This was the first ever human rights treaty adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. The Convention’s preamble recognizes that “at all periods of history genocide has inflicted great losses on humanity” and that international cooperation is required to “liberate humankind from such an odious scourge”. Genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law.

Image and Memory

Over a decade ago, photographer Jim Lommasson began working on a collaborative photographic and writing project with Iraqi and Syrian refugees to the United States, based on the objects they brought with them to this country. Survivors or their family members were asked to reflect through creative expression on the white background of the photographs of the objects, their memories attached to the object. This process allowed autobiographical narratives to become collective history. The objects carry with them stories of survival of incomprehensible inhumanity. The voices of survivors and their families illuminate the experiences that are shared despite differences of time and place: experiences of resilience, courage, the fragility of life, family history, and hope for the future. This exhibition is inspired by the original exhibition of the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center, and the images taken by photographer Jim Lommasson for his work with the Center in 2018. In the current exhibition, the images related to the Holocaust and the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda were taken by photographer Jim Lommasson. The images related to the genocides and atrocities in Cambodia and Bosnia and Herzegovina were provided by the Documentation Center in Cambodia, the War Childhood Museum Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Remembering Srebrenica.

This exhibition is a joint project of the Department of Global Communications and the United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect, together with the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center, the War Childhood Museum Bosnia and Herzegovina, Remembering Srebrenica, and the Documentation Center of Cambodia. The original exhibition Stories of Survival: Object. Image. Memory. on which this exhibition is based is a project of the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center and photographer Jim Lommasson.

THE HOLOCAUST

Coming to power in Germany in 1933, the Nazis implemented their racist agenda. Their targets included Jews, people with physical and mental disabilities, Germans of African descent, Roma and Sinti, homosexuals, and Slavs. Antisemitic persecution intensified after Germany invaded Poland in 1939, triggering the Second World War, and followed shortly by the invasion of the East of Poland by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). The Germans isolated Jews in ghettos and deported them for slave labour.

With the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Nazi mobile killing units (Einsatzgruppen) and local collaborators began to murder Jews systematically. To relieve the stress on the killers of the face-to-face murder of women, children and men, the regime established annihilation sites equipped with lethal gas chambers. And it sought to erase Jewish family life, culture, and religious tradition. The Allied Forces defeated Nazi Germany and its allies in 1945.

Only one-third of Jewish men, women and children in Europe survived the Holocaust.

Ursula Meyer

(Delmenhorst, Germany, December 2, 1919 - Bremen, Germany, May 11, 1982)

Ursula Meyer’s Teddy Bear. Bremen, Germany, ca. 1925. On loan courtesy of the Walter and Gisela Hesse family. Photo/Jim Lommasson. Reflections by Marianne Hesse, niece of Ursula

With storm clouds gathering on the horizon, my aunt’s teddy bear was buried in a backyard for safekeeping.

My aunt and grandfather weathered the torrent and returned to Germany after three years in Theresienstadt in Czechoslovakia. After learning of the damage caused by the deluge, my aunt and grandfather wrote to my mother in America informing her that Tante Regine, Onkel Siegfried, Georg, Tante Toni, Hugo and his two sisters and Onkel Moritz and his family had been engulfed by the surge.

In the aftermath of the storm, my aunt was reunited with her childhood teddy bear."

Marianne Hesse

Ursula (far left) and the Meyer family

Mossek (Morris) Nortman

(Sosnowiec, Poland, September 3, 1913 - Miami Beach, Florida, January 1991)

Mossek and Ruchel (Rose) (France, ca. 1949-1952)

Rose (Ruchel) Nortman was 1 of 6 children born to Motke and Temman (Wiedling) Jungerman, in Volbrum, a small town in the southwest of Poland. When Rose’s father died, the family moved to the larger town of Sosnowiec where Rose met her future husband, Moszek Nuchman, who became Morris Nortman in this country.

Morris, the son of a well-respected Jewish scholar, met Rose at a dance and, over the objections of his mother, fell in love. The couple married twelve days after Nazi Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939.

When Morris’ sister’s family was murdered by the Nazis and he was conscripted for forced labor, he escaped. Rose and Morris then tried to make their way to Lvov in southeastern Poland, where a relative lived.

That was the last time that Rose saw her mother, sister Manya, and brother Herschel, who were murdered by the Nazis. In the summer of 1943, after being expelled to Siberia, the two spent several weeks on a boxcar with 120 other people surrounded by the stench of human waste and death. When the boxcar arrived in Siberia half of those that boarded in Lvov were dead.

Life in Siberia was terribly taxing but the Nortmans survived the barren, desolate location and cases of malaria to see the defeat of Nazi Germany.

Mossek (Morris) Nortman’s Laissez-Passer Travel Document. (France, 1947). On loan courtesy of Michael Nortman. Photo/Jim Lommasson Reflections by Michael Nortman, grandson of Morris

Judy Katz

(Satu Mare, Romania, 18 February 1930 – Glenview, Illinois, 9 March 2016)

Judy Katz’s Scarf. Germany, mid-20th century. Gift of Judy and Harold Katz. Photo/Jim Lommasson. Reflections by Jack, Larry, and Lila Katz, children of Judy

It was always in Mom’s dresser drawer. She never took it out. We never saw it, but it meant something to Mom. It kept her memories alive from before the camps. There is something special about this scarf that was special to her. We will never know. Lila saw it only once many years ago. Mom gave it to the museum so that people will know how something as small as a piece of fabric, can have special meaning, when everything else has been taken away from you. We will never know the story behind the scarf. We can only imagine."

Jack

Mom was wearing it when the family ARRIVED at Bergen-Belsen. She was wearing it when her mom PUSHED HER into the other line, where Mom’s older sister Debbie was. That was the line that LED TO LIFE."

Larry

Somehow throughout Mom’s time in the camps, this scarf survived as she did. It was her only link to life before the Shoah; to life as she remembered it. Mom survived and the scarf survived along with her."

Lila

Judy Katz, aboard the S.S. Marine. Marlin, 1947.

CAMBODIA

Between 1975 and 1979, under the Khmer Rouge regime, an estimated 1,5 to 2 million people died as a result of starvation, forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings. The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) have classified these acts as crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions.

In November 2018 the ECCC declared that the Khmer Rouge regime committed genocide against the Cham Muslim and ethnic Vietnamese minorities by implementing and executing a policy to target religious and racial groups with an “intent to establish an atheistic and homogenous society without class division by abolishing all ethnic, national, religious, racial, class and cultural differences”.

It is estimated that 36 percent of the reported pre-war Cham population of 300,000 died under the Khmer Rouge regime, while up to 90 percent of the 200,000 ethnic Vietnamese population in Cambodia was forcibly displaced to neighbouring Vietnam and up to 20,000 killed.

Keo Chhoeun

Photo/DC-Cam Collection of Khmer Rouge Victims Belongings

Keo Chhoeun, whose beard/moustache remover is featured in the exhibition, was a former National Volleyball and Tennis Champions and an official of the National Bank of Cambodia from (circa) 1968 -1975. He also ran for member of parliament of Takeo province against a senior state official, In Tam, in 1969. Photo of Keo Chhoeun dated 1969.

Photo/Try Socheata, circa late 1975. DC-Cam Collection of Khmer Rouge Victims Belongings

This beard/moustache remover was hand-made by Keo Chhoeun. who disappeared during the purge at Preah Neth Preah commune of Khmer Rouge's region 5 in 1978. His sister, Keo Nann, who is now 96 years old, kept this beard/moustache remover for over 40 years before she handed it to the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam).

Kong Sarifas

(Cambodia, 1970s)

Kong Sarifas with her daughters. Photo/DC-Cam Collection of Khmer Rouge Victims Belongings

When I was young, I lived with my older sister in Phnom Penh, and sold cakes in my spare time. One man often bought my cakes; sometimes, he bought all of them at once. One day he asked some elderly people to come and ask for my hand in marriage. It took eight months for me to agree to his proposal. I was only 13 years old and did not even know how to tie my hair into a bun. After we got engaged, he tried to push me to marry him as soon as possible. But I told him I would not get married until I learned how to cook. When we were engaged, he worked as a goldsmith while I wove silk at my home.

His family had an above-average income because they were merchants. After we were married, we lived at my sister’s house for a year. I stopped selling cakes and began mending fishing nets instead. Although we barely saved any money, we had enough food to eat each day."

My sons Yousib and Smael lived in Phnom Penh in the early 1970s; both of them were fishermen. Smael had beautiful curly hair that he did not have to comb at all. He was more handsome than his older brother Yousib. Yousib was afraid of having curly hair, so he used to comb it down many times each day. Both of my sons were educated men and brilliant students, especially Smael. They could read and write Khmer, Cham [the language of Cambodia’s Muslim community], Arabic, and Malaysian. Smael also studied magic with a teacher in Phnom Penh; he learned how to disguise himself and how to change the trajectory of a bullet.

Of my two sons, Smael was never scared of anything, not even ghosts or bullets, while Yousib was afraid of everything. I remember clearly the day when Smael took my clothes and put them on. He said, “I want to try on your clothes because I am afraid that I might be separated from you, mother.” I felt sad at his words; it seemed like a sign that one day my sons and I would be separated."

We moved back to Khleang Sbek Village in Kandal Province during the Lon Nol regime. By 1973, the fighting grew worse there, so we hired a car and went to Chraing Chamreh. All of the villagers left, not just my family. But after a while, my husband felt bad about losing his house, so he took three of our children –Yousib and Smael, and my daughter Mari – back to Khleang Sbek so they could fish; he said there was nothing for him to do in Chraing Chamreh. Later I went to Khleang Sbek so I could ask my husband and children to come back. However, he said he and our sons would not return, but that I could take Mari back with me. We left and reached Chraing Chamreh in the evening. The following morning all the roads were cut off and I never saw my husband or sons again.

Mari and I then went to Phnom Penh and stayed with my younger brother who was a colonel in the army. He told us to pack our belongings and leave the city because the situation in Phnom Penh was getting worse.

Before leaving, I wanted to return to Khleang Sbek and find my husband and sons, but the Khmer Rouge soldiers would not allow it. So my younger brother, daughter and I left Phnom Penh for Takeo Province.

In Takeo, we lived in many villages in Bati District. Wherever we went, they no longer allowed us to live with the Muslim community, and we were the only Chams in the village. We had many difficulties with eating, as our religion did not allow us to eat pork. Some people with bad intentions tried to make us eat pig meat.

In Bati District, the Angkar forced me to carry earth. Soon my eyes swelled up and my skin became yellow. My daughter could hardly recognize me. The Angkar then ordered Mari to join a children’s mobile unit. Seeing I was sick, my daughter dared to tell the unit chief that he should not force me to go to work any longer, pointing out that I was an old lady. We were lucky because the Angkar let us fix fishing nets instead. We also got to eat a lot because the fishermen often stole fish and gave them to us.

In 1978, we decided to run away because we could not stand starving any longer. But the cadres caught us and ordered us to live in another village, where they assigned Mari to dry beans. She could not stand this work and kept fainting. Seeing her like that, the unit chief sent Mari to prison for a short while and then released her. But then our old village chief wrote a letter asking that we be sent back. I refused to go and told the cadres that they should kill me right then rather than send me back. He replied that the Angkar just wanted me to go back to fix fishing nets because we were the only Chams in that village.

When the villagers who were evacuated at the same time as my sons returned home, they told me they had seen two young men whose skins were like Vietnamese along with a beautiful woman; they were trying to find their mother. One of the villagers said he saw all three of them being taken away by the Angkar to be killed. The villagers also described their appearances. They said one man had curly hair and the other one had straight hair. On hearing this, I was heartbroken; I knew it was my sons. Even though the base people told me that Smael and Yousib were killed by the Angkar, I still have a feeling that Smael is probably alive. But, Yousib probably died because his face in the photo has become very pale. I went to see a fortune teller who told me that both of my sons are still alive; one of them had lost a leg, but both would come home in the month of Chet. I have waited through many months of Chet for them by now."

Kong Sarifas

Pictures of Ly Yousib and Ly Smael that their mother, Kong Sarifas kept with her. Photo/DC-Cam Collection of Khmer Rouge Victims Belongings

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

From 1992 to 1995, following the collapse of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), it is estimated that more than 100,000 people were killed in Bosnia and Herzegovina. 80 percent of those killed were Bosniaks, the predominantly Muslim population, while two million people were forced to flee their homes. Concentration camps were set up; thousands of Bosnian women were systematically raped. In July 1995, in what has been established by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia as an act of genocide, more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were executed by the Bosnian Serb forces in the town of Srebrenica, in addition to more than 20,000 civilians expelled. Srebrenica was a United Nations-declared “safe area”. This was the largest massacre in Europe since the Holocaust and despite prompting a ceasefire that led to the end of the war, the genocide left deep emotional scars on the survivors, families of victims, and the Bosnian and Herzegovinian society in general, creating enduring obstacles to reconciliation among the country’s different ethnic groups.

This was the largest massacre in Europe since the Holocaust and despite prompting a ceasefire that led to the end of the war, the genocide left deep emotional scars on survivors and the Bosnian society in general, creating enduring obstacles to reconciliation among the country’s different ethnic groups.

Selma Jahić

Grandfather’s watch. Photo/Selma Jahić

The story of this watch is very dear to me. This watch belonged to my beloved grandfather, Suljo Salko Jahić. He was not just my grandfather but more like my second father. During the war from 1992 to 1995, we, my mother my little brother and I lived separated from my father for four years. My father was not able to return to Bosnia at the beginning of the war. He worked in Belgrade, and when the war broke out he was trapped in Serbia. Soon he had to flee from Serbia with no chance of returning to Bosnia. He left and somehow was able to travel to Austria where he then tried to get in contact with us. Which was very difficult at that time.

During the war, there was a lot of censorship and letters were confiscated by the Red Cross (sic.). You were not allowed to write about death or the war. Sometimes months would pass before we were able to contact my father. He never knew if we were alive or if we had been killed.

This whole time my grandfather became something like a second father to my brother and me. Grandfather was a very strong and proud man. He loved us dearly. He was mostly an introvert, who loved to take care of his animals and did not like to talk to people. He was a person who only talked if he had something important to say. I followed him all around like a little puppy. He took me with him when he chopped wood or when he took our cow to graze.

I was, and still am, very proud of my grandfather.

My grandfather became our protector, even though he was a man in his seventies. I remember the last day we saw him. We were all ordered to go to Potočari, on the 10th of July 1995, because Srebrenica has been occupied by the Serbian army. My aunts were there with their kids. I remember Grandfather had his best clothes on. He never left the house in dirty clothes. He had on his black beret, white shirt, black blazer and black trousers."

We were deported on the 13th of July. My grandfather and grandmother stayed behind. On the day we left Srebrenica the temperature was unbearable. Many fainted. We had no water to drink. That’s why my grandparents decided to wait until the next day and leave then, hoping the weather might be cooler. We trusted the Serbian soldiers who told us, “Who wants to leave, can leave, and who wants to stay, can stay. No one will be harmed.” Later we would all find out what really happened to those who stayed behind.

So, we left with the promise of seeing them tomorrow. We were to be deported with a truck. There was an elderly couple in front of us. The Serbian soldiers tried to separate the husband from the wife. The elderly woman pleaded with them and her husband too, to let him leave with his wife because she was ill. They told the wife: “Don’t worry, you’ll find him in the Drina.” And they pushed the wife to go onto the truck and separated the husband to the side. I remember that my mother almost crushed my hand while watching this. She was shaking. I did not know what was wrong.

When we arrived at the refugee camp, people soon realised what was happening with those who were separated. Women screamed and cried in agony. I asked my mother where my grandfather was. She told me that he was gone.

I was 7 when we left Srebrenica in 1995. Now my parents, my brother and I live in Austria.

In 2007, my aunt, my father’s sister, called him at work and told him that they received a letter from the red cross. They had found my grandfather’s remains. My father called me at home. I remember the moment like it was yesterday. It was the summer holidays. He just said: “They have found grandfather”. I put the phone down. Went to into my brother’s room and told him the news. After that, I left our flat and walked around for hours. I can’t remember where I went. I just had to get out. After that, I went home and cried.

I was not there when he was buried. I was mentally not strong enough to go. Years later my father showed me the photo with the items that were found with his body. I saw this watch and asked if I could have it. He asked his sisters in Bosnia if they were okay with that. My aunts were more than happy to give me a piece to remember him by because they knew how much he meant to me.

This watch was found with the remains of my grandfather, Suljo Salko Jahić. His body was found in two separate mass graves. Some body parts are still missing.

I will always remember him as a strong but quiet man. Who taught me so many things about nature and animals.

I’ll never forget you grandfather."

Selma Jahić

Mela

Mela’s Ballet Shoes. Photo/War Childhood Museum.

When I enrolled in ballet, of course I wanted to stand on my tiptoes. I don’t know how I managed to wait until I was ten years old for my first pointe shoes! I got them from the theatre, just like all the other ballerinas in my class. Everyone got the “real” pink pointe shoes except for me. I got the white ones, and it made me sad. And jealous. Then my teacher explained to me what kind of pointe shoes they were. She told me that they were Sarajevo pointe shoes, produced in our city until the war started. The ballet students who practiced in them would become prima ballerinas of the Sarajevo National Theatre. These pointe shoes would never be made again. I didn’t become a prima ballerina of the Sarajevo National Theatre. Life took me in a different direction, but my great love for ballet lived on. My Sarajevo pointe shoes remain in a special place."

Reflections by Mela, b. 1984 (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

RWANDA

During the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, more than one million people – overwhelmingly Tutsi, but also moderate Hutu, Twa and others who opposed the genocide – were systematically killed in less than three months. Hundreds of thousands of women were raped.

The 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda was intricately planned by Hutu extremists, who leveraged their positions to support and equip militias. The 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda ended when the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) defeated the Hutu extremist government and stopped the killings.

In the years following the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, more than 120,000 people were detained for bearing criminal responsibility for their participation in the genocide.

To deal with the overwhelming number of perpetrators, Rwanda sought a judicial response that was pursued on three levels: the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the national court system, and the traditional community court system called “Gacaca”. Since then, Rwanda has embarked on an ambitious Justice and Reconciliation process with the aim of all Rwandans once again living side by side in peace. A key homegrown initiative is Ndi Umunyarwanda, which means 'I am Rwandan'. It is a programme initiated to build a national identity based on trust and dignity. It aims to strengthen unity and reconciliation among Rwandans by providing a forum for people to talk about the causes and consequences of the genocide as well as what it means to be Rwandan.

Reflections by Immaculée Mukantaganira

(Muko, Rwanda, December 3, 1954 -)

Raissa Umutoni’s Dress London, United Kingdom, ca. 1994. On loan courtesy of Immaculée Mukantaganira. Photo/Jim Lommasson.

Immaculée’s daughters, Raissa (left) and her sister Clarisse, Gikondo, Kigali, 1993.

Raissa Umutoni was wearing this dress on June 12, 1994. When the 1994 genocide took her. This was a beautiful dress. Raissa wore it with a white sweater and sandals. She looked beautiful in that dress. Her father, Thaddée Ruzirabwoba, took every opportunity to take a picture of her especially after work as he enjoyed being with them.

You can see here that colors faded but the dress’s parts stick together.

Raissa cried during the nights calling for our attention couple times. Her dad would not let me go and console her and convince her to go back to sleep. Her young brother kept me busy and her dad would not let me get up in the middle of the night. “You are tired, you were busy all day, let me help her, I have to help you.” So, I did not have to worry about Raissa or Clarisse, dad would get up, change them, give them milk and then convince them to go back to sleep.

Thank you honey! You were unique!

Dress was bought from London by one of our friends, who travelled to Europe. Thank you Charles, you have been a blessing to Thaddée, my children and I. Our children were the center of our home, budget, celebration, holidays, family turned around the needs of our kids. I am so grateful that we provided to them all they wanted (they were very happy). I was very much blessed to look at them holding hands knowing they had a bright future. Clarisse and Raissa were very bright kids and we were proud parents. I will always remember you with gratitude.

Immaculée Mukantaganira

Raissa Umutoni’s Dress (6/12/1994)

Raissa was three when the 1994 [genocide] took her life.

This dress was white and Raissa wore it when she dressed nicely for event that happened in the evenings. This reminds how my husband was a provider to our family. My children were always dressed properly and nicely. Their dad travelled a lot and would buy clothes and shoes for them and I. Today, when I got to the mall, I feel so desperate to not have them and spoil them with nice dresses. At a certain point, I could spend a year without going to the mall. Why go? To do what?

Raissa and Clarisse, my daughters were always neat and loved to dress up and enjoyed it. Their dad allowed them to do so; probably God knew they needed that attention. They had 3 years/5 years to be spoiled.

Dear friends seeing this exhibit; Please let your children enjoy your love and presence! Let them know you love them. Spend enough time with them; do not let any occasion without making them happy. They need it, deserve it. Because, there is the thing God never tells us: “How long we have them or we are with them!!”

Thank you Thaddée, Love you!

Immaculée Mukantaganira

Raissa Umutoni’s Cardigan. London, United Kingdom, ca. 1994. On loan courtesy of Immaculée Mukantaganira. Photo/Jim Lommasson.

Immaculée’s daughter Raissa, Gikondo, Kigali, 1994.

Clarisse Uwonkunda’s Dress Egypt, ca. 1994. On loan courtesy of Immaculée Mukantaganira. Photo/Jim Lommasson.

Thaddee, and Clarisse, Gikondo, Kigali, 1994 Egypt, ca. 1994.

This dress belongs to Clarisse Uwonkunda, my daughter; she was five during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. I found it in a grave in Rubavu, Western Province, Rwanda. Last January 2017, I went to Rwanda and wanted to find your bodies (skeleton) and restore your dignity. I found you on January 20th and took you to the memorial site of Nyanza, Kicukiro. I was exhausted after that; I expected to be relieved and feel grateful for that accomplishment but instead became so sick. My muscles were not working, I spent weeks in bed recalling every detail of before your trip to Ruhango and the day of our separation. Our wish was for you to survive even if we die. We could not imagine someone killing a 3 or 5 year old.

Helas, no chance for me! God only know!

Immaculée Mukantaganira

Clarissa Uwonkunda’s Dress (was bought in Egypt when his (sic.) father was traveling there).

Bodies deteriorate
Bones are found apart
Clothes/dresses are dirty, bloody but keep their forms

Family Photo Album. Rwanda, 1990s. On loan courtesy of Immaculée Mukantaganira. Photo/Jim Lommasson.

Dear Thaddée,

These photos are remains from your dedication to our family. Do you remember how you came from work, put on your shorts and played with our children! They loved that time and you loved taking their photos. When I miss you, when I think of you, when I am lonely, I look at them and cry. Thank you so much for loving me until your last day! Thank you for leaving behind a legacy of love. You were an exceptional husband and I love you dearly.

To Raissa (she was 3) and Clarisse (she was 5), you have been a blessing and I thank God for the few years you gifted me with your love. I would never imagine myself living without you. Even today, you are a driving force in my life. I want to be able to see you again.

Love you so much!

Mother; Wife; Immaculée Mukantaganira

Clarisse Uwonkunda learning to walk. Her cousins had spent the night in our home visiting in 1990.

Thaddée Ruzirabwoba was also killed in the genocide again the Tutsi in Rwanda. He is the father of Clarissa and Raissa who also did not escape the Genocide.

Immaculée, Mishawaka, Indiana, ca. 2000.

A call to ACTION to prevent genocide

What is the United Nations doing?

The United Nations Office for Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect

Established in 2005, the Office reports directly to the Secretary-General.

The Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide is mandated to raise awareness of the causes and dynamics of genocide, alert the Secretary-General, and through him the Security Council, where there is a risk of genocide, and to advocate and mobilize for appropriate action.

The Special Adviser on the Responsibility to Protect leads the conceptual, political, institutional, and operational development of the Responsibility to Protect principle.

The Office collects information, conducts assessments of situations worldwide and alerts the Secretary-General, and other relevant actors, to the risk of atrocity crimes, as well as their incitement. The Office also undertakes training and provides technical assistance to promote a greater understanding of the causes and dynamics of atrocity crimes as well as enhance the capacity of the United Nations, Member States, regional and sub-regional organizations, and civil society to prevent atrocity crimes and develop effective means of response when they occur.

What else?

Increasing awareness of atrocity crimes through Outreach Programmes: The United Nations has mandated public outreach programmes that educate about the Holocaust and the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, so as to try and help to counter future genocides. This exhibition is an example of the activities and educational resources developed by the Outreach Programmes.

Multilateralism: The United Nations provides support for Member States to have stronger collaboration among countries. In this way, a sustainable path to a peaceful, stable, prosperous world can be built.

�ٱ��Ƶappkeeping: UN �ٱ��Ƶappkeeping helps countries navigate the difficult path from conflict to peace. UN �ٱ��Ƶappkeeping protects civilians, prevents conflict, builds rule of law and security institutions, advances political solutions to conflict, promotes Human Rights, women, youth, peace and security, and delivers operational support. UN peacekeeping observes three principles: consent of parties; impartiality; non-use of force except for self-defence and to defend the mandate.

Countering factors that can drive atrocity crimes such as exploitation and inequalities.

The Strategy and Plan of Action sets out the commitment of the United Nations to address and counter hate speech

Commitment 1: Monitor and analyse hate speech
Commitment 2: Address root causes, drivers and actions of hate speech
Commitment 3: Engage and support the victims of hate speech
Commitment 4: Convene relevant actors
Commitment 5: Engage with new and traditional media
Commitment 6: Use technology
Commitment 7: Use education as a tool for addressing and countering hate speech
Commitment 8: Foster peaceful, inclusive and just societies to address the root causes and drivers of hate speech
Commitment 9: Engaging in advocacy
Commitment 10: Developing guidance for external communications
Commitment 11: Leveraging partnerships
Commitment 12: Building the skills of United Nations staff
Commitment 13: Supporting member states

In 2019, the United Nations Secretary-General launched the United Nations Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech with two overriding objectives:

to enhance UN efforts to address the root causes and drivers of hate speech in a coordinated way, with a focus on education as a preventive tool to raise awareness and build unity.
to focus on the United Nations response to the impact of hate speech on societies, with an emphasis on engaging with relevant actors, strengthening advocacy, and developing guidance for counternarratives.

The Strategy recognizes that hate speech is a precursor to atrocity crimes, including genocide. This was the case in the Holocaust as well as in Rwanda, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Cambodia. The United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect is the focal point for the Strategy and supports its implementation across the United Nations system and with other relevant actors.

What can you do? Here are a few ideas:

Educate yourself: Learn about the warning signs and causes of genocide. Use your knowledge to counter the spread of disinformation and misinformation.
Get involved: Become familiar with organizations that work to protect human rights and prevent genocide. Follow the United Nations #NoToHate campaign to learn more and counter the spread of hate speech.
Foster a culture of mutual respect: Promote a culture of peace and non-violence that includes respect for diversity and non-discrimination. This way we can build societies that are resilient to the risk of genocide.

WHAT WILL YOU DO?

This exhibit was launched in April 2023

Local category:

Human Rights

Stories of Survival and Remembrance - A call to action for genocide prevention

AKAHNJOC — Fri, 10 Mar 2023 22:22:13 +0000

Teaser image:

United Nations - Human Rights

A Conflict-Related Sexual Violence (CRSV) Survivor’s Journey: 15 Years On

What is conflict-related sexual violence?

CRSV Data, Trends and Patterns

UN’s Response to CRSV

TOE

UN Action

Programme and Communications Team

The Story of CRSV

Prevention of CRSV

The Occurrence of CRSV

After CRSV: The Survivor’s Journey Begins

Stage 1 - Immediate Assistance for Survivors

Immediate and Short-Term Assistance

One-Stop Centre Model

Dignity Kit

Stage 2 - Medium- and Long-Term Assistance

Pursuing Justice & Accountability

The Guinea Trial

Undertaking Livelihood Activities, Skills Training, and Education

Somalia

Stage 3 - Survivors’ Political Participation in �ٱ���Ƶappbuilding and Development Efforts

15-Year Anniversary

Sponsors and Collaborators

A Conflict-Related Sexual Violence (CRSV) Survivor's Journey to Healing

Remember.Unite.Renew.

Remember.Unite.Renew.

100 Days of Terror

Did you know?

Laurence Niyonangira survived the genocide.

But 37 of her relatives were killed. She was 20 years old.

Propaganda fuels hatred

Perished lives

Fleeing for safety

Shelter

As Laurence fled with her children, she promised God that if they survived, she would someday, somehow forgive the killers.

Xavier Nemeye was 30 years old when he took part in the genocide.

Years of propaganda

Violence

Shame

Imprisonment and enduring guilt

Uniting through forgiveness

Thousands of genocide survivors live next door to reformed perpetrators in eight unity and resilience villages throughout Rwanda.

Justice after the genocide

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda

The National Court System

The Gacaca Court System

The zigzag symbol on Rwanda’s famous Agaseke, or peace basket, represents women holding hands.

What is genocide?

Greek prefix genos (people, race or tribe), and the Latin suffix cide (killing)

Intent to destroy

The legal definition of genocide includes intent to destroy in whole or in part, which is the most difficult element to determine.

Did you know?

War crimes

Crimes against humanity

Dark side of humanity

Cambodia (1975-1979)

The 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda: 7 April-7 July 1994

Srebrenica: July 1995

Change begins with all of us: say #NoToHate

WAYS TO DEAL WITH HATE SPEECH

1. Educate

2. Get involved

3. Foster a culture of mutual respect

The Department of Global Communications

7 April marked the start of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

Remember. Unite. Renew.

Photography 4 Humanity

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights

Human Rights are Universal

75thAnniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The United Nations and Human Rights

About Photography 4 Humanity

About Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance

The Collaboration

FINALISTS

The last hope

Mother and daughter hoping for rain

Running through the storm for water

Stage 3 - Survivors’ Political Participation in �ٱ��Ƶappbuilding and Development Efforts

75^thAnniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Infrared and X-ray reflectogram of Rue Triste
CICS – Cologne Institute of Conservation Sciences