Exhibition featuring art of Holocaust victim opens at national democracy museum

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Exhibition featuring art of Holocaust victim opens at national democracy museum

Published: 29 Jan. 2026, 17:56 Updated: 29 Jan. 2026, 18:38

MICHAEL LEE
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

German Ambassador to Korea Georg Schmidt, left, and Felix Nussbaum Foundation Chair Heiko Schlatermund, second from left, listen to Israeli Ambassador to Korea Rafael Harpaz, second from right, at the National Museum of Korean Democracy in Yongsan District, central Seoul, on Jan. 27, following an International Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony hosted by the German and Israeli embassies. Felix Nussbaum’s artworks are being shown in Korea for the first time as part of the “Remembering for the Future” exhibition at the museum, which opened on Jan. 28 and runs through March 15. At the ceremony, Schmidt expressed hope that the exhibition would allow visitors to “see and feel the suffering and the horror” experienced by Nussbaum and other Holocaust victims. Harpaz warned that “hatred toward Jews did not disappear after 1945” but has “persisted” and “has even been intensifying” in recent years. [EMBASSY OF ISRAEL]

A new exhibition at the National Museum of Korean Democracy is offering Korean audiences a deeply personal perspective on the Holocaust through the life and art of German Jewish painter Felix Nussbaum.

Named “On the Move with Felix Nussbaum,” the exhibition opened on Wednesday and runs through March 15. This marks the first time Nussbaum’s works have been shown in Korea.

The exhibition was organized in connection with International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Tuesday and followed a joint memorial ceremony held the same day by the German and Israeli embassies in Seoul. The event honored the 81st anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp and was the 10th joint Holocaust memorial ceremony to take place in Korea since 2017.

Felix Nussbaum was a German Jewish painter whose life was shaped by Nazi persecution. Forced first into exile and later into hiding, he documented his experiences in art that depicted his fear, isolation and despair. Nussbaum and his wife were eventually discovered in hiding and deported to Auschwitz in 1944, after which they were both murdered.

German Ambassador to Korea Georg Schmidt speaks during the International Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony hosted by the Israeli and German embassies at the National Museum of Korean Democracy in Yongsan District, central Seoul, on Jan. 27. [EMBASSY OF ISRAEL]

In his remarks at the memorial ceremony, German Ambassador to Korea Georg Schmidt noted that while the Holocaust’s death toll of six million people “goes beyond the human imagination,” the exhibition of Nussbaum’s works allows visitors to “see and feel the suffering and the horror” of Nazi persecution through the eyes of an individual artist.

Schmidt also said the exhibition reflects Germany's “historical responsibility for the Holocaust,” which, he added, remains “part of German identity.”

The Nussbaum exhibition is being shown alongside “Auschwitz - A Place on Earth: The Auschwitz Album,” an exhibition comprising visual documentation of the concentration camp, curated by Yad Vashem, Israel’s national Holocaust remembrance center.

According to Schmidt, the joint exhibition in Seoul, titled “Remembering for the Future,” underlines “our duty to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive, not allow any denial or distortion of the historical facts and take a firm stand against any form of antisemitism and racism.”

Israeli Ambassador to Korea Rafael Harpaz speaks during the International Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony hosted by the Israeli and German embassies at the National Museum of Korean Democracy in Yongsan District, central Seoul, on Jan. 27. [EMBASSY OF ISRAEL]

In his speech, Israeli Ambassador to Korea Rafael Harpaz warned that “hatred toward Jews did not disappear after 1945” but instead has “persisted” and “has even been intensifying” in recent years.

He described Israel as “a shelter and homeland for a people who had learned, at the highest possible cost, what it means to be defenseless” in the wake of the Holocaust.

Harpaz also thanked Germany for its “continued friendship and support since [Israel's] independence in 1948,” adding that it was “especially meaningful to gather at the National Museum of Korean Democracy, a place dedicated to the values of human dignity, freedom and responsibility.”

Attendees of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony hosted by the German and Israeli embassies view "The Triumph of Death" (1944), a painting by German Jewish artist and Holocaust victim Felix Nussbaum, at the National Museum of Korean Democracy in Yongsan District, central Seoul, on Jan. 27. [EMBASSY OF ISRAEL]

Tuesday’s ceremony was attended by Lee Jae-Oh, the president of the Korea Democracy Foundation; Choung Byoung-gug, the chair of the Arts Council Korea; representatives of the Felix Nussbaum Foundation; and members of the diplomatic corps and Jewish communities in Korea.

BY MICHAEL LEE [[email protected]]