War Games
January 22 – June 29, 2025
War Games explores how Bak relates his childhood experiences - from his direct renderings of the Holocaust in his watercolors from 1945 to 1948 - to a selection of his contemporary paintings and drawings. Through the presentation of toys and game pieces, Bak draws our attention to the realities of childhoods spent in zones of conflict and how children are pawns used by warring parties. The exhibition will dedicate one room to historic and contemporary instances of children human rights violations. The final room of the exhibition will showcase Mr. Bak’s 2024 series Tools of the Trade. These works represent his fears for children whose lives and futures are destroyed by war and the escalation of violence in the Middle East. As much as he mourns this age of destruction, he also depicts his unending belief in humanity’s ability to mend and his hope that somehow peace and reason will triumph.
Exhibition funding generously sponsored by:
Samuel Bak Museum education and operational support provided by:
Bibliography War Games
Books:
Jacobs Altman, Linda. Warsaw, Lodz, Vilna: The Holocaust Ghettos. 1st ed. New York, NY: Enslow Publishing, LLC, 2014.
Arad, Yitzhak. Ghetto in Flames : The Struggle and Destruction of the Jews in Vilna in the Holocaust. New York: Holocaust Library, 1982.
Bhabha, Jacqueline et al. Children Without a State: A Global Human Rights Challenge. 1st ed. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2011
Bak, Samuel, and Paul T Nagano. Samuel Bak : The Past Continues. 1st ed. Boston: D.R. Godine in association with Pucker Safrai Gallery, 1988.
Bak, Samuel. The Game Continues. Chess in the Art of Samuel Bak, Pucker Gallery 1999.
Bak, Samuel., Irene. Tayler, and Alicia Craig. Faxon. Between Worlds : The Paintings and Drawings of Samuel Bak from 1946 to 2001. Boston: Pucker Art Publications, 2002.
Bak, Samuel. Painted in Words : A Memoir. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001.
Bak, Samuel. …Your Move, Pucker Gallery, 2003.
Bak, Samuel., Jeffrey Diefendorf, Mara Witzling. The Art of Samuel Bak. Memory and Metaphor, 2006.
Bak, Samuel, Danna Nolan Fewell, Gary A. Phillips. Icons of Loss, Pucker Gallery, 2008.
Bak, Samuel. Your Move, Pucker Gallery, 2012
Beigbeder, Yves. New Challenges for UNICEF : Children, Women, and Human Rights. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ; Palgrave, 2001.
Carpenter, R. Charli. Forgetting Children Born of War : Setting the Human Rights Agenda in Bosnia and Beyond. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010.
Ensalaco, Mark, and Linda C Majka. Children’s Human Rights : Progress and Challenges for Children Worldwide. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005
Freeman, Michael, ed. Children’s Rights : New Issues, New Themes, New Perspectives. 1st ed. Leiden ; Brill Nijhoff, 2018.
Frear, Shelley R. “The Genoa Indian School: A Mixed Legacy 50 Years of Transformation, Survival, and Hope in a United States Government Indian Boarding School on the Nebraska Plains.” ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, 2012.
Gram, John R. Education at the Edge of Empire : Negotiating Pueblo Identity in New Mexico’s Indian Boarding Schools. 1st ed. Scattle, Washington ; University of Washington Press, 2015
Gross, Timothy. Negotiating Inseparability in China The Xinjiang Class and the Dynamics of Uyghur Identity. Hong Kong: HKU Press, 2019.
Hlavek, Elizabeth Hadara. A Meaning-Based Approach to Art Therapy : From the Holocaust to Contemporary Practices. New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2023.
Healey, Justin. Rights of Children and Young People. 1st ed. vol. 469. Thirroul, NSW: Spinney Press, The, 2021.
Invernizzi, Antonella, and Jane Williams. The Human Rights of Children: From Visions to Implementation. 1st edition. United Kingdom: Routledge, 2011.
Kiss, Yudit. More Nights than Days: A Survey of Writings of Child Genocide Survivors. 1st ed. Budapest: Central European University Press, 2023
Norris, Tyler. “Race, Childhood, and Native American Boarding Schools: A Case Study of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute.” ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, 2014.
Oswell, David. The Agency of Children: From Family to Global Human Rights. 1st ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Ramirez-Barat, Clara. Transitional Justice, Culture, and Society : Beyond Outreach. New York: Social Science Research Council, 2014.
Rudashevski, Yitskhok. Vilna Ghetto Diary of Yitskhok Rudashevski. English translation by Solon Beinfeld. https://museum.yivo.org/general-docs/YR_Diary_EN.pdf
Schneider, Annette, Ellie Keen. Compasito: Manual for Human Rights Education with Children - Third Edition. 1st ed. Namur: Council of Europe, 2021
Sliwa, Joanna. Jewish Childhood in Kraków: A Microhistory of the Holocaust. 1st ed. United States: Rutgers University Press, 2021
Stout, Mary. Native American Boarding Schools. Santa Barbara: Greenwood, 2012.
Sutzkever, Abraham, Justin D. Cammy. From the Vilna Ghetto to Nuremberg: Memoir and Testimony. 1st ed. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2021.
Thomas, Clayton, and issuing body Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service. Education for Afghan Girls under the Taliban : Status and Issues for Congress. [Library of Congress public edition]. Washington, D.C: Congressional Research Service, 2022.
Weston, Burns H. Child Labor and Human Rights : Making Children Matter. Boulder, Colo: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2005.
Xu, Vicky Xiuzhong. Uyghurs for Sale: ‘Re-Education’, Forced Labour and Surveillance beyond Xinjiang. Australian Strategic Policy Institute, 2022.
Zapruder, Alexandra, ed. Salvaged Pages : Young Writers’ Diaries of the Holocaust. Second edition. New Haven ; Yale University Press, 2015.
Articles:
Akbulut-Yuksel, Mevlude. “Children of War: The Long-Run Effects of Large-Scale Physical Destruction and Warfare on Children.” The Journal of human resources 49.3 (2014): 634–662.
Archuleta, Margaret, Brenda J Child, and K. Tsianina Lomawaima. Away from Home : American Indian Boarding School Experiences, 1879-2000. Phoenix, Ariz: Heard Museum, 2000.
Colón, Johdalys Quiñonez. "Re-Education Camps in Xinjiang Province: Human Rights Violations against the Uighurs." Rev. Juridica U. Inter. PR 55 (2020): 665.
Engel, Madeline H, Norma Kolko Phillips, and Frances A DellaCava. “Indigenous Children’s Rights: A Sociological Perspective on Boarding Schools and Transracial Adoption.” The International journal of children’s rights 20, no. 2 (2012): 279–299.
Guha-Sapir, Debarati et al. “Patterns of Civilian and Child Deaths Due to War-Related Violence in Syria: A Comparative Analysis from the Violation Documentation Center Dataset, 2011–16.” The Lancet global health 6.1 (2018): e103–e110.
Kapel Lev-ari, Rony, Roy Aloni, and Amichai Ben Ari. “Children Fleeing War-Exploring the Mental Health of Refugee Children Arriving in Israel after the Ukraine 2022 Conflict.” Child abuse & neglect 149 (2024): 106608–106608.
Khatoon, Yusra, Shreya Singh, and Utkarsh Singh. "A Human Right Violation in China: Uyghur Muslims Case Study." Issue 2 Int'l JL Mgmt. & Human. 4 (2021): 1414.
Kravic, Nermina, Izet Pajevic, and Mevludin Hasanovic. “Surviving Genocide in Srebrenica during the Early Childhood and Adolescent Personality.” Croatian medical journal 54.1 (2013): 55–64.
Lempertienė, Lara, Rasutė Žukienė, and Giedrė Jankevičiūtė. “Constructing Blocks of Memory: Post-Holocaust Narratives of Jewish Vilna.” The Art of Identity and Memory. Boston, USA: Academic Studies Press, 2019
Raza, Zainab. “CHINA’S ‘POLITICAL RE-EDUCATION’ CAMPS OF XINJIANG’S UYGHUR MUSLIMS.” Asian affairs (London) 50.4 (2019): 488–501.
Rosenberg-Friedman, Lilach. “Children as Pawns on the National Chess Board: Children in Israel’s 1948 War of Independence.” The history of the family 28.4 (2023): 711–739.
Sagi-Schwartz, Abraham. “Children of War and Peace: A Human Development Perspective.” The Journal of conflict resolution 56.5 (2012): 933–951.
Stern, Julia. "Genocide in China: Uighur re-education camps and international response." Immigration and Human Rights Law Review 3, no. 1 (2021): 2.
Web pages:
Amnesty International: https://www.amnesty.org
Children and War Foundation: https://www.childrenandwar.org/
Children in Conflict: https://www.childreninconflict.org/
Children of War: https://www.cowf.org/
Global Peace index: https://www.economicsandpeace.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/GPI-2024-web.pdf
KidsRights: https://www.kidsrights.org/
Save the Children: https://www.savethechildren.org
War Child: https://www.warchild.net/
UNICEF: https://www.unicefusa.org
UN Human Rights: https://www.ohchr.org
How do US States Measure up on Child Rights: https://www.hrw.org/feature/2022/09/13/how-do-states-measure-up-child-rights