Hadassah-Brandeis Institute

Lives Eliminated, Dreams Illuminated

Lauren Bergman | Ella Milch-Sheriff

on the left, a young White woman with brown hair sitting under a tree holding a bunch of flowers; on the right, a black and white photos of a young White woman sitting on the ground, naked, surrounded by men, with one of their hands on her head
On the left: Lauren Bergman, She Dreams of Flowers, Oil on cradled panel, 18 x 14 in. On the right: A once known woman, National Archives, still shot from 8mm footage film US forces discovered in SS barracks in Augsburg, Germany, after the war.

 

September 7 - October 25, 2023

An immersive exhibition of painting and music. Painter Lauren Bergman and composer Ella Milch-Sheriff honor young women and girls murdered in the Holocaust by using art to imagine the lives they might have led. Lives Eliminated, Dreams Illuminated is presented in partnership with the Dr. David M. Milch Foundation.

Listen to Milch-Sheriff's composition accompanying Bergman's painting, She Dreams of Flowers.  

Press: 

At Brandeis, A New Holocaust Memorial Unlike Any Other, Kara Baskin, JewishBoston.com

Art exhibit at Brandeis University reimagines lives cut short by Holocaust, NBC Boston, Eli Rosenberg

Brandeis exhibit on women in the Holocaust holds chilling parallels to Israel today, The Times of Israel, Rich Tenorio.

Logo is circular image that says "Celebrating Brandeis at 75"

"Lives Eliminated, Dreams Illuminated" HBI Programs

Green and black woven cover with the title of the book

Survivors Remember their Teenage Selves: What Testimonies Tell Us about Jewish Girls and Women in Forced Labor Camps

October 17, 2023

HBI Book Launch in the HBI Series on Jewish Women

The Weavers of Trautenau: Jewish Female Forced Labor in the Holocaust  by Janine Holc

Paired with Lives Eliminated, Dreams Illuminated in which painter Lauren Bergman and composer Ella Milch-Sheriff honor young women and girls murdered in the Holocaust by using art to imagine the  lives they might have led, Professor Holc discussed the over 3,000 Jewish girls and young women who found themselves in forced labor camps and how gender played an important role in the way they experienced the Holocaust.  

Torn Fabric: Loss, Gender and the Holocaust black and white images of family members who perished in the Holocaust

October 11, 2023

The Holocaust Research Study Group

Six members of the HBI Holocaust Research Study Group (HRSG), Ornit Barkai, Debra Kaufman, Laurel Leff, Rachel Rapperport Munn, Karin Rosenthal, and Sarah Silberstein Swartz, discussed aspects of their own work that intersect with the themes of the HBI art exhibition Lives Eliminated, Dreams Illuminated.

WATCH HERE

The Power of Art: Preserving Memory, Teaching the Holocaust a collage of four women, on the top left, Barbara Wallace Grossman is a White woman with light hair wearing red; on the top right, Rachel Kadish is a White woman with black hair wearing purple and black; on the bottom left, Ellen Germain is a White woman wearing black and red; on the top right, Lisa Fishbayn Joffe is a White woman with brown hair

September 12, 2023

How can art help us better understand the Holocaust and discuss its implications for today? U.S. State Department Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues Ellen Germain, Professor Barbara Wallace Grossman, Author Rachel Kadish, and HBI Director Lisa Fishbayn Joffe discuss these questions and more.

WATCH HERE