The Departments of Hebrew, Biblical and Jewish Studies, Germanic Studies and European Studies of the School of Languages and Cultures present

“The Cold Shower of a new Life”:
Child Survivor Yehuda Bacon and his early post-war writing

A Research Seminar with Dr Sharon Kangisser Cohen

Abstract

Between the years 1945-2015, alongside his work as an artist, child survivor Yehuda Bacon wrote over 240 notebooks describing his experiences during the war and the process of his rehabilitation. Bacon begins writing his diaries out of his own need to express himself and this process was encouraged by mentors who were assisting Bacon in the immediate post-war period. Bacon as a young boy was already identified as a talented artist. He drew throughout the war years and after. However, he chose to write a diary – another medium to express his feelings and thoughts.

This presentation will give a reflection on the first two notebooks that Bacon wrote from 1945 whilst in Sitrin, located outside Prague. This rare manuscript traces an individual effort to live with memories of the past whilst taking the first steps towards rebuilding a new life.

About the speaker

Sharon Kangisser Cohen is the Director of Eli and Diana Zborowski centre for the Study of the Holocaust and its Aftermath at Yad Vashem. She is also the Director of the Deportations Project at the International Institute for Holocaust research at Yad Vashem.  She has published numerous articles relating to the postwar lives of survivors of the Holocaust. Her most recent book, Testimony and Time: Survivors of the Holocaust Remember, was published in 2015 by Yad Vashem.

For more information, contact: Dr Avril Alba – avril.alba@sydney.edu.au