Lam Museum exhibit commemorates the Holocaust

February 7, 2024

The Lam Museum is hosting a traveling exhibit from Kennesaw State University entitled “Words, Music, Memory: Re(presenting) Voices of the Holocaust” through March 2.

This ten-panel exhibit and accompanying digital gallery guide highlight the links along the chain of commemoration that connect the past and the present and generation to generation. While the panels focus on the words of writers who witnessed the Holocaust, the gallery guide includes biographies of the writers, sketches by the panel illustrators, information about musical and dramatic pieces adapted from the writers’ works, and interviews with composers, lyricists, performers, and producers. It also provides visitors with opportunities to access performance videos and share their perspectives.

The Museum will present two programs in conjunction with the exhibit.

On Saturday, February 10, at 2 p.m, Laurence Sherr, composer-in-residence and professor of music at Kennesaw State University, will present a lecture entitled “Suppressed Music and Art during the Nazi Era” at the Lam Museum. He will discuss how, as part of their effort to exterminate the Jewish people, the Nazis also sought to exterminate their culture. Sherr will provide an overview of the artistic suppression that extended to genres, groups or individuals that were deemed to be undesirable, the labeling of composers and artists as “entartete” (degenerate), and the rewriting of music history during the Nazi Era.

On Sunday, February 11, from 1 – 3 p.m., a performance entitled “Words, Music, Memory: Songs Commemorating the Holocaust” will be held in Brendle Recital Hall. Focusing on music based on the words of young people who witnessed the Holocaust—many of whom did not survive—the performance uses the power of music to bridge generations in active commemoration. The performance will feature Sheena Ramirez (soprano), Courtney Miller (oboe/English Horn), and Suzanne Polak (piano) with commentary from Adina Langer (Curator, Kennesaw State University Museum of History and Holocaust Education) and Sherr (Composer). A reception in the lobby will follow the performance. Admission is free.

These programs and the exhibit are sponsored by the Wake Forest University Interdisciplinary Arts Center.