Talking Memory: Checkmate: Making, Playing and Picturing Chess in the Holocaust

Crafting Heritage: The Art of Holocaust Remembrance – A Homage to David Friedmann

Join us on Sunday, May 15th, for the first program:

Checkmate: Making, Playing and Picturing Chess in the Holocaust

Guest Speaker: Dr. Rachel Perry

Chess was played, made and pictured during the Holocaust by individuals in extremis. As practice, chess offered victims a means of distraction, entertainment, and community building. With great skill and ingenuity, chess boards and pieces were fashioned out of folded paper, carved out of wood and modeled out of bread. When escape routes were closed off and the endgame seemed near, chess allowed artists to symbolize their feelings of agency and entrapment, as both players and pawns.

This program is in partnership with Classrooms Without Borders, Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Center, and the Jewish Historical Institute.