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THE BEST OF THE HERALD. PART V                                                Readers' Choice

18-IN MEMORIAM

Raoul Wallenberg. The Holocaust of the Jewish People was an exceptional event in human history. Although humanity has been witness, on more than one occasion, to acts of murder and genocide, never has it been subjected to something resembling the Jewish Holocaust. A systematic, rational, industrial plan, its objective was to eliminate completely an entire nation. Jewish culture, the cradle of Western civilization, ought to have disappeared alongside the people who had embraced it for thousands of years. This programme of extermination, so meticulously implemented, was carried out by one of the most cultured nations the world has ever known. Human history has never been witness to a similar event. The Holocaust was an exception.

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19-ART

Cubism: The Dawn of Cubism. The birth of abstract art in Russia. Cubism (a name suggested by Henri Matisse in 1909) is a non-objective approach to painting developed originally in France by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque around 1906. The early, "pre-Cubist" period (to 1906) is characterized by emphasizing the process of construction, of creating a pictorial rhythm, and converting the represented forms into the essential geometric shapes: the cube, the sphere, the cylinder, and the cone. Between 1909 and 1911, the analysis of human forms and still lifes..

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20-PHOTOGRAPHY

Photography: The shadow of intimacy: This March, the Victoria & Albert Museum celebrates the centenary of the birth of photographer Bill Brandt (1904-1983) with a stunning retrospective. With over 150 mainly vintage, gelatin-silver prints from the Bill Brandt Archive, the exhibition displays the finest selection of his rare and famous prints to be seen in Britain for over 30 years.  Perhaps the secret of Brandt's success in Britain was his special perspective: London as seen from Paris and Vienna. The V&A exhibition runs between March 24 and July 25.Bill Brandt came to London for good at the beginning of April 1934. He wanted to be English, and really belong to the fairy-tale island.

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21-RELIGION

Islam: What is Islam? An in-depth article on the birth, origin, development, history, tradition, civilization, laws, Muslim world, sects, and the Prophet Mohammad by a committee of scholars and experts in the field. EIGHTY-THREE per cent of Britons know "little or nothing" about Islam . ISLAM, the Prophet said, is built on five pillars. They do not define the religion, because its essence is traditionally taken to be its spiritual life, rather than its formal practices. They are, however, regarded as its foundations and, more than anything else in Islam, they give Muslim societies their unmistakeable rhythm and texture. The FIRST PILLAR, and the most fundamental, is called the "Two Testimonies" (shahadatayn). These function as a sort of miniature creed. Every Muslim is required to affirm that "there is no god but God", and that "Mohammed is the messenger of God". The first assertion, announcing that Islam is strictly monotheistic, might be compared to the Old Testament's: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is One." The second of the Two Testimonies tells the believer that this One God wishes to make his preferences known to his erring creatures, and has chosen a prophet - like Moses in the Bible...__________________________________________________________________