The Saviors. The Ways of Salvation

About the exhibition

The Moscow Museum of Modern Art and the Russian Jewish Congress are proud to present Saviors. The Ways of Salvation, an exhibition dedicated to the stories of Russian and Georgian Righteous Among the Nations who saved the Jewish people during the Holocaust. The exhibition opens the Moscow programme of Holocaust Remembrance Week.

The Righteous Among the Nations is a title used to describe people of non-Jewish descent who, despite the danger to their own lives, sheltered Jews, provided them with food, documents and necessary items to save them from the Nazis.

The exposition is based on two large-scale installations. The central object of the first room is a round ‘cella’ covered with armour made of plates with the names of the Russian Righteous. It contains interviews and testimonies of Jews saved by the Righteous. Their saviors were later recognised by the Yad Vashem Institute Commission as the Righteous Among the Nations. In niches on the outside are four video interviews with the Righteous: Igor Polugorodnik, Ivan Levchuk, Maria Terebilova, Tamara Romanova. There are also texts about righteousness in Russia and other countries, video materials with memories of the Righteous, as well as interviews with the initiators of the project and a map with the geography of rescue.

The second hall features Ivan Shchukin's large-scale installation Exodus. It is a series of objects made of custom-made matzah, telling the story of the Georgian Righteous Among the Nations. Georgia has been hospitable to the Jewish people for centuries, which was one of the reasons for expanding the Saviors project to this region. A musical composition by Ilya Rubinstein, created specifically for the exhibition, enhances the show.

The annual Holocaust Remembrance Week

The annual Holocaust Remembrance Week consists of more than 500 memorial, cultural and educational events commemorating International Holocaust Remembrance Day (27 January) and the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp by the Red Army (27 January 1945). This year's Remembrance Week takes place across Russia from 15 to 31 January. It is a part of the official programme of celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the Victory in the Second World War. Organised by the Russian Jewish Congress with the support of the Federal Agency for Nationalities, the Moscow City Government and the Holocaust Centre, the Remembrance Week is attended by people of various nationalities and confessions. The programme of events in Moscow and the regions is available at memoryweek.ru.