Supported by the EAJC, the exhibition 'German Occupation' by Meer Axelrod has opened in Saint Petersburg.

On January 24, the Museum of the Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg hosted the opening of "German Occupation," an exhibition of works by Soviet artist Meir Axelrod. The event marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 75th anniversary of the lifting of the Siege of Leningrad.

The exhibition features approximately 100 paintings and graphic works from Meir Axelrod's "German Occupation" series. A significant portion of these works was created between 1942 and 1943 in Alma-Ata, during the period the artist was designing the sets for Sergei Eisenstein's film "Ivan the Terrible."

The horrors of the war and the Holocaust, alongside conversations with refugees from Poland and Belarus, deeply affected the artist. In rapid succession, he produced dozens of paintings, drawings, and sketches bearing stark titles such as "Execution," "Executioners," "Rapists," and "Hangmen."  This series, which earned Axelrod the moniker of "the Goya of the 20th Century," serves not only as a masterpiece of fine art but also as near-documentary evidence in the historical trial against Nazism.

An essential highlight of the exhibition is Meir Axelrod's painting "The Prisoner" — the only lifetime portrait of Alexander Pechersky, the leader of the legendary uprising at the Sobibor Nazi death camp. The story behind this portrait is of particular interest. Axelrod viewed documenting the suffering endured by the Jewish people as his personal mission. Near the end of his life, in the 1960s, he worked on his "Ghetto" cycle, during which he visited Rostov-on-Don. Upon learning that Pechersky resided there, Axelrod tracked him down and painted "The Prisoner." Pechersky is depicted in the very shirt he wore on the day of the uprising. Axelrod himself considered this work to be one of the pinnacles of his artistic career.

This exhibition offers a unique opportunity to view the painting in St. Petersburg.

The "German Occupation" exhibition, organized by the Alexander Pechersky Foundation and the Vellum Gallery with the support of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress and the Russian Military Historical Society, has previously been successfully presented in Moscow, Belarus, Nizhny Novgorod, and Israel.

The opening of the exhibition in St. Petersburg was preceded by a roundtable discussion titled "Occupation, Siege, Holocaust: Evidence in the Artworks of Contemporaries and Eyewitnesses," held at the Research Museum of the Russian Academy of Arts. During the discussion, Dr. Haim Ben-Yakov, Director General of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, remarked: "The Holocaust was a turning point in history. It prompted the world to declare: 'Never again.' During these days, the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, in cooperation with the World Jewish Congress, is conducting initiatives to commemorate the lessons of the Shoah. The exhibition in St. Petersburg is highly symbolic, as Holocaust Remembrance Day coincides with the 75th anniversary of the complete liberation of Leningrad from the fascist siege. We remember that fascism brought grief, death, and destruction to all nations, and therefore this day is of universal, human significance. The core value of UN Resolution 60/7 lies in its call to remember past crimes to ensure they NEVER occur again. And, indeed, this is also a day of gratitude to all those who rose to defend humanity against fascism."