Media Release (8 April 2008)
War hero’s Courage to Care exhibition
A man who sheltered Jews from the Nazi’s and spent time in prison because
of what he believed in is educating students as a part of the Courage
to Care exhibition which highlights the exploits of ordinary people
in saving others.
Mr Hos, took part in the exhibition because of the need to ensure "that
no group is ever again punished on the basis of race or nationality".
In the summer of 1942 in Nazi-occupied Holland, Mr Hos and his wife
hid two Jewish friends and their young daughter. When the German police
raided their home and arrested their friends, they managed to convince
them that the girl was their child. At the end of the war she was reunited
with her mother, who had survived the Auschwitz concentration camp. Kees
has repeatedly said: 'I don't think I did more than any decent person
should have done.'
Kees Hos, now 92, has lived in the Latrobe Valley for about 40 years,
after a successful career in art education. Mr Hos migrated to Australia
in 1956 and lectured in fine arts at Monash University's Gippsland Institute
of Advanced Education.
The founding Head of Gippsland School of Art, now Gippsland Centre for
Art and Design, Mr Hos based the philosophy of the school on a multidisciplinary
European model and attracted many major artists as lecturers. The school quickly
gained a reputation as an innovative and vibrant place to work where disciplinary
boundaries were broken down. Since then it has maintained a core culture of
cross-disciplinary practice, collaboration and improvisation.
Switchback Gallery Director Rodney Forbes says “ Kees was an accomplished
musician as well as a visual artist. We owe him a debt of gratitude for
seeding a strong contemporary art scene in Gippsland.”
The Courage to Care exhibition at St Columba's College, Essendon, runs
until April 18, from 9am to 4pm, also 6pm to 8pm on Thursdays.
For more information on studying Art & Design at Monash University
Gippsland, call 5122 6261
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