Samuel Bak Gallery and Learning Center, In Loving Memory of Hope Silber Kaplan

Holocaust Museum Houston is exceptionally honored that the Samuel Bak Gallery and Learning Center serves as a permanent, international gallery for his paintings, works donated directly to the Museum by the artist. The Bak Learning Center will help visitors understand the content of his works, as well as the rich symbolism used in his paintings.

Bak was born in 1933 in Vilna, Poland. His artistic talent was first recognized during an exhibition of his work in the Vilna Ghetto when he was nine years old. Bak and his mother survived the Holocaust through the efforts of his father, his aunt and a Benedictine nun known as Sister Maria who gave Bak and his mother shelter in a convent in Vilna. While both Bak and his mother survived, his father and four grandparents all perished at the hands of the Nazis. Bak’s life-and-death experiences inspired his prolific collection of artwork.

Visitors will enter the 1,923-square-foot center through an antechamber focusing on the life of Samuel Bak. The gallery itself is circular, comprised of three intimate galleries with seating and education center. The galleries will continuously display the exceptional work of the artist while teaching children and adults to apply an understanding of the events of the Holocaust and other genocides to their own lives and respond to them successfully by developing social resiliency.