A Child's Shattered World on Display

"Return to Vilna" will be exhibited in the Florida Holocaust Museum through May 13.

The works of Polish born holocaust survivor Samuel Bak display his images of the town of Vilnius and the disruption that lead to him displaying his first paintings in the Lithuanian Vilna ghetto at the age of 9. His works have been referred to as a vital teaching tool, as the artist uses his images to communicate the effort and emotions behind "an enormous effort to put everything together,
when it is absolutely impossible to put it together again because the
broken things can never become whole again."

Vilna was the seat rabbinical studies from the beginning of the 17th century and evolved into an influential force in the Halakah, Kabbalah, and Hasidim domains through several estrangements and reconciliations. Overpopulation and unemployment lead to many emigrating to North America and South Africa in the late 1800's. The village of Vilna Alberta, Canada, was named after this centre of learning and evolution, and memories of Vilnius before the war.