Artist exhibit highlights July Holocaust Resource Center events
The Sara and Sam Schoffer Holocaust Resource Center at Stockton University will sponsor a series of programs in July, including an exhibit featuring the works of artist and Holocaust survivor Magda Watts.
Watts was a Hungarian-born Israeli artist who became world renowned for creating dolls that showed her life before World War II and the resilience Holocaust survivors. As a teen, she was deported first to Auschwitz and then to a subcamp of the Flossenbürg concentration camp, Nurenberg (Siemens-Schuckertwerke). There she began creating dolls from rags and scraps she found. The dolls helped shield her from the atrocities she witnessed at the camp, including deportation, forced labor, hunger, and murder. Creating the dolls ultimately saved her life, as she used it to obtain extra food rations.
After liberation, she settled in Israel where she dedicated herself to creating more dolls about her experience. She died in 2019 at 90. “Magda Watts: A Handmade Story of Resilience” will feature several examples of her work and will be on display in Stockton Art Gallery in Galloway until July 27. The gallery is open Tuesday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Guided tours are available. For information, go to stockton.edu/ holocaust-resource/index.html.