Hybrid: In-person at Berkshire Community College and Via Zoom! It is difficult to imagine that amidst the horrors of the holocaust, surrounded by death and destruction, loneliness and loss, art survived and was called upon by both perpetrator and victim. It is hard to understand how victims, whose identity was denied and whose dignity was removed, could attempt to combat these circumstances through the act of putting pencil to paper, reciting Shakespeare from memory, or writing and illustrating annotated diaries. Amid the desolation of the camps, some found a way through art to express love, tenderness, emotion, humor, sexuality, aesthetic concerns, political ideology, or religious fervor. Through drawing and poetry, painting and performance, victims expressed empathy for the past, hope for the future, and engaged in resistance. Such creative action might never be received by its intended audience or had no intended audience other than its author. More hauntingly, art might also be bartered for the necessities of survival. This presentation will look at the array of roles that the arts played in the camps, Auschwitz in particular.