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The Spots of Light – To Be a Woman in the Holocaust

  • To be a Woman in the Holocaust

    Exhibition and pedagogical guide for teachers

  • 1. Download

  • 2. Print

  • 3. Exhibit

Exhibition about the Jewish women’s experiences in the Holocaust

The Spots of Light – To Be a Woman in the Holocaust is a unique exhibition in many ways. Exhibition, so as appropriate pedagogical guide, was developed by Yad Vashem Traveling Exhibiton Department in order to present Jewish women’s experiences in different parts of their life, their suffering and surviving during the Holocaust, in a unique way.

Through 30 panels,The Spots of Light start from a different and underused perspective in Holocaust teaching – a gender perspective.

The Spots of Light are showing us that is impossible to gain a complete understanding of the Holocaust as one of the most horrific crimes in the history of humanity without insight into the specifity and uniqueness of women’s experiences.

Miško Stanišić

Марго Финк

The story of Margo Fink is an integral part of the exhibition.

Exhibition was developed by Yad Vashem Traveling Exhibiton Department

Exhibition is in a simple way focusing on a Jewish women’s experiences in different parts of their life, their suffering and surviving during the Holocaust. It is divided into several topics:

  • Love,
  • Motherhood,
  • Caring for others,
  • Femininity,
  • Resistance and rescue,
  • Friendship,
  • Faith,
  • Food,
  • Art.

From a patriarchal and conservative society to taking full responsibility for future of their communities

Before World War II, Jewish women, like most of their contemporaries, were an integral part of a patriarchal and conservative society. Consequently, women generally did not participate in the leadership that governed the Jewish community during the Holocaust. Instead, Jewish women took the lead in the family, which meant “affirmation of life” – survival at all costs.

Without men

After the first phase, when a large number of Jewish men were killed, countless women were left alone with children and the elderly. It was this group that made the majority of the population in the ghettos during the following phases. Women have taken on the responsibilities of feeding and ensuring a minimum level of daily functioning of the family despite the terrible conditions. Commitment and identification with children, as the role of women was seen by the environment, and even by women themselves, were a motivating force for survival. Unfortunately, this often led them to extermination.

In the camps

Women who survived the destruction campaigns and became part of the Nazi slave labor would enter the world of camps. Usually in women camps, they tried to recover psihollogicaly and rebuild their identity after every trace of their individuality and belonging to family and community were taken away.

Women in the Holocaust applied their minds to a place that deprived them of their minds and brought strength to a place where they were denied their strength. In a place where the very right to live was wrested from women and their families, faced their deaths with fortitude and invested every additional moment of life with meaning. It is these women’s voices that we wish to sound and whose stories we wish to tell.

Tračci svetla - Pedagočki vodič

Pedagogical guide for teachers (in Serbian)

A Pedagogical Guide for Teachers is also available. The guide describes how to work with students before, during, and after viewing the exhibition and what the teacher’s tasks are. The guide contains working materials that can be printed, copied and distributed to students.

Inspect the exhibition

Before downloading, you can review all 30 panels, and get acquainted with the content and layout. The documents are available on the Yad Vashem’s website. Use these links:

Tračci svetla - Biti žena u Holokaustu - pregled
Изглед изложбе
Izložba "Tračci svetla" u Novom Sadu 26.01.2021

The exhibition “Spots of Light” in Novi Sad on January 26, 2021

Introduction to the exhibition

Cheryl Ohion is Director of the Yad Vashem’s educational program “Echoes and Reflections” intended primarily for teachers in the United States.

On the occasion of the first opening of the exhibition in Serbia on January 26, 2021 at the Cultural Center of Novi Sad, Cheryl Ohion gave an exclusive presentation of the exhibition (via Zoom). You can see the full video here.

Cheryl holds a JD from Harvard Law School and a BA in History from the State University of New York at Binghamton. After working for many years as an attorney, she reinvented herself as a Holocaust educator.

Sheryl O

Cheryl Ohion

Download the exhibition

Izložba

The exhibition “Spots of Light” in Novi Sad on January 26, 2021

Terms of use

  1. No changes whatsoever, either content or design, may be made to the Files.
  2. The Exhibition must be produced and presented in its entirety.
  3. No more than one copy of the Files may be produced.
  4. Production of the Files shall be made exclusively according to the specific technical instructionsappearing on the Ready2Print web site.
  5. Files are intended for the sole purpose of the production of the Exhibition. After production, all Files must be deleted immediately and without delay. Files may not be used for any other purpose, such as, posters, catalogues, brochures, distribution and educational materials, etc., without the prior written consent of Yad Vashem.
  6. Files may not be usedfor any other purpose, such as, posters, catalogues, brochures, distribution and educational materials, etc., without the prior written consent of Yad Vashem.
  7. Text or visual information may not be added and displayedalongside the Exhibition.
  8. All Exhibition Files must be printed in accordance with the original dimensions and displayed in the order and format shown on the website.
  9. Any other use whatsoever of any image/text and/or any part thereof contained in the Files shall not be permitted without the prior, express, written permission by Yad Vashem.
  10. No logomay be added to the Exhibition without the express written consent of Yad Vashem.

Let’s keep in touch

  • Let us know when you display the exhibition. We would like to hear your experiences.
  • Send us pictures from the opening, the visits and workshops.
  • If you have any questions, comments or ideas – feel free to contact us.

ready2print

Museum-quality exhibitions easily accessible for printing and exhibition

Ready2print is inovative concept developed by Yad Vashem Traveling Exhibiton Department with aim to provide museum-quality exhibitions that can be easily dowloaded, printed and exhibited in appropriate public spaces such as schools, universities, libraries, archives, museums, churches and synagoges, and other public spaces.

Ready2print exhibition is packed as digital file containing high-resolution documents, instructions and terms of use.

Following this example and simillar concepts developed in other institutions, Terraforming also develops i distributes its original materials. One of them is the exhibiton ”Some words about the Holocaust in Serbia”.

ready2print Yad Vashem

Yad Vashem’s exhibition “How was it humanly possible? “