Exhibition open from 29 October 2025 – 18 January 2026
This series of intimate portraits by Anita Lester honours 16 Holocaust survivors from Melbourne, whose lives were rebuilt through family, community and culture. Through these paintings, their faces and stories embody resilience, vitality, and the ongoing responsibility to remember. This exhibition invites visitors to encounter these survivors not just as subjects of history, but as living witnesses.
Anita Lester is a multidisciplinary artist based in Melbourne, Australia, working across music, film, painting, poetry, and illustration. Her practice is grounded in storytelling first and foremost, resisting easy categorisation – marked by both a technical precision and a deep emotional intelligence that connects across forms.
Whether through image, word, sound, or line, Anita’s work continues to ask essential questions – about memory, faith, and how we carry culture through rupture and reinvention.
Visitor Information
Recommended for all ages
Allow up to 45 minutes
Location: Alter Family Special Exhibitions Gallery, Melbourne Holocaust Museum
Tickets: Adults $15 | Concessions $12
An exhibition by Anita Lester in partnership with the Melbourne Holocaust Museum.
EXHIBITION PRODUCED BY
THIS EXHIBITION WAS MADE POSSIBLE WITH SINCERE APPRECIATION TO OUR PARTNER
WITH HEARTFELT THANKS TO THE SURVIVORS AND THEIR FAMILIES FOR SHARING THEIR STORIES
| Nina Bassat AM Thomas (Tommy) Moses Beck Ester Braitberg Sonja Cowan Wolf Deane Elka Ekstein |
Sally Felzen Abram Goldberg OAM Dita Gould Ken Hamer Berni Hamersfeld |
Luba Olenski Alex (Sany) Heimler Vivienne Spiegel Magda Steiner Celina Widawski |
MELBOURNE HOLOCAUST MUSEUM TEAM
| Ellen Bradley Dr Steve Cooke Dr Breann Fallon Dr Daniel Haumschild |
Alice McInnes Tegan Thompson CompNow |
Space Arrangers Studio Tweed Synthesis Design+Build |
ANITA LESTER TEAM
| Ben Gibson and Skye Jefferys at Gallery Jones Goldberg Family |
Dena Lester James McPherson |
Melbourne Studio of Art Gideon Preiss Allan and Sandra Preiss |
