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Exhibit of Jewish artists’ Holocaust works opens in Berlin

Artist Nelly Toll poses between two of her paintings during the exhibition 'Art from the Holocaust - 100 Works from the Yad Vashem Collection' at the German Historic Museum in Berlin, Germany, Monday, Jan. 25, 2016. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
Artist Nelly Toll poses between two of her paintings during the exhibition 'Art from the Holocaust - 100 Works from the Yad Vashem Collection' at the German Historic Museum in Berlin, Germany, Monday, Jan. 25, 2016. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn) Artist Nelly Toll poses between two of her paintings during the exhibition 'Art from the Holocaust - 100 Works from the Yad Vashem Collection' at the German Historic Museum in Berlin, Germany, Monday, Jan. 25, 2016. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

By Associated Press 4 min read

BERLIN (AP) – Nelly Toll was only 8 years old when she and her mother went into hiding in 1943 in Poland to escape the Nazis’ death camps. The Jewish girl spent long hours in her tiny hideaway at a Christian family’s home writing stories, keeping a diary and creating wonderful, bright paintings of a lost world.

Today, her art is on display in the center of Berlin at a special exhibition of Art from the Holocaust that opened at the German Historical Museum on Monday.

“I hope that generations to come will look at this and know what atrocities made me do this,” Toll told The Associated Press at the opening.

Toll’s paintings are among 100 artworks created by Jewish artists during the Holocaust on display, the first time the collection from the Yad Vashem memorial in Jerusalem has been shown outside Israel.

The exhibition includes work by Jewish artists in hiding, in concentration and labor camps, and in ghettos. Of the 50 artists featured, 24 were killed by the Nazis. Alongside the mostly unknown names are acclaimed artists such as Felix Nussbaum and Ludwig Meidner.