Survival through Art

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Man Who Restored my Belief ART copy

Yehuda Bacon (Czechoslovakia, 1929) … To the Man who Restored my Belief in Humanity

The Anguish of Liberation as Reflected in Art

These pieces from the Yad Vashem Art Collection show how survivors reacted to their liberation through art. Click HERE for the complete online exhibit.

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Alfred Neumann (1900- 1968) Woman on a Balcony … Terezin, 1945

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Jakob Zim (Cymberknopf) (b. 1920) View of Buchenwald, a Few Days after Liberation, 1945

Freedom Hurrah ART copy

Thomas Geve (Stefan Cohn) (b. 1929) Hurrah, the FREEDOM … Buchenwald DP camp, 1945

Liberation ART copy

Israel Alfred Glück (1921 – 2007) Liberation … Bergen-Belsen DP Camp, 1945

 

Voices of the Survivors

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miriamwenge-1390588644-7 Hyman Steinmetz holocaust survivor at his home in Brooklyn

Someday they will all be gone – those who survived the atrocities of the Holocaust firsthand. Today their number hovers around 195,000 but that figure dwindles every year. Are we so focused on remembering the Holocaust for the future that we’re ignoring its victims today? That’s the big question. Others come to mind as well:

Did they forget enough to rebuild and love again?

How are they faring now in their closing years?

Have they been compensated for ‘the years that the locust have eaten‘?

In an article in Tablet Magazine from January 2014, journalist Matthew Fishbane lays out the survivors’ plight now, 70-plus years after the end of World War II. Included is a beautiful audio-visual tribute to nine survivors now living in New York.

Article:  Soon There Will Be Nor More Survivors

Audio-Visual Tribute:  Portraits by Jason Florio

Dr. Seuss Goes to War

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Cages Cost Money! Buy More U.S. Savings Bonds and Stamps! PM Magazine – Dec. 15, 1941. Dr. Seuss Collection, MSS 230. Mandeville Special Collections Library, UCSD

Most people don’t equate the silly semantics of Dr. Seuss with WWII. He did, however, spend part of his career penning political cartoons both as a civilian and a captain in the U.S. army during WWII. In the early years of the war, Seuss (aka Theodor Seuss Geisel), drew over 400 political cartoons for a left-leaning New York newspaper called PM denouncing Hitler and Mussolini. His cartoons strongly supported FDR and at the same time ridiculed and railed against the American Japanese, for which he later apologized. In 1943, he joined the U.S. Army and headed up the Animation Dept. of the First Motion Picture Unit of the U.S. Army Air Force where he wrote and produced several propaganda films including: • Your Job in Germany  • Our Job in Japan  • Private Snafu  • Gerald McBoing-Boing … and others.

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Nazi Children

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Harald Quandt, Magda Goebbels’ son by her first marriage, center back stands in uniform with his step-father Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, bottom front right, his mother Magda, third from left, and the couple’s 6 children, Helga, Hildegard, Helmut, Hedwig, Holdine and Heidrun in 1942. Photograph: Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Sins of the Fathers

No one should have to bear the brunt of someone else’s past. On the contrary, people should be judged by their own morals and merit. Yet when something happens that is so horrendous, so horrific and beyond understanding – like the Holocaust – what then? Are the perpetrators’ progeny to blame? Recently two Nazi ‘children’ were in the news with stories that tug at the soul. Their stories beg the question:

“What if that were me?”

Below are links to articles about several children of Nazi war criminals and how they’ve dealt with the burden of their blood. Each has had to live under the pall of his/her predecessor’s name and reputation. Some have tried to erase the stigma. Others have embraced it. Still others have tried to reach out and make amends. But they have all had to come to terms with the stain of guilt and shame of their collective past. This is by no means an exhaustive list but an invitation to look further.

Adolf Eichmann – SS Obersturmbannführer  / Facilitator of ‘Final Solution’

Legacy of the Third Reich: Eichmann’s Remorseful Son  International Business Times – 01/30/2013 – Synopsis: Otto Adolf Eichmann, one of the major architects of the Nazi Holocaust, met justice in 1962 by hanging. To his oldest son, Ricardo, Adolf Eichmann was an historical figure, a father he didn’t know.

Coffee with Eichmann  Ynetnews.com – 07/06/2010 – Synopsis: For years, Ricardo Eichmann has distanced himself from the annals of modern history, where his father, Adolf Eichmann occupies one of the most horrifying places. In order to lead a normal life under the name “Eichmann”, he focuses on archaeological excavations… [Read more…]

May We Never Forget

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Hall of Remembrance at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem – Courtesy of wikimedia: David Shankbone

Today, January 27, 2015, is International Remembrance Day, marking the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by the Soviet troops. It is a day to honor all the victims of the Nazi killing machine and to hear their stories. Below are links to a variety of tributes:

From Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial & Museum, Poland

300 former Auschwitz prisoners will take part in a commemoration event to mark the 70th anniversary of liberation. “This is the last big anniversary that we can commemorate with a numerous group of Survivors [eye-witnesses]. Their voices became the most important warning against the human capacity for extreme humiliation, contempt and genocide”, said Dr. Piotr M.A. Cywiński, director of the Auschwitz Memorial. “Soon it will not be the [eye]witnesses of those years, but us, the post-war generations, who will pass this horrible knowledge and the crushing conclusions that result from it. That is why it is so important that the crowned heads, presidents, prime ministers and high-rank representatives of international institutions are present in Birkenau today …” Read More

A Lifetime Surviving Auschwitz

As the world marks the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, a group of now-elderly survivors of the Nazi death camp have been photographed holding wartime pictures of themselves and their murdered families. (Guardian online news)

Remembering the Holocaust

Thousands of people are gathering at events worldwide to remember the millions of people killed in the Holocaust – exactly 70 years after the liberation of the Nazis’ Auschwitz death camp. (ITV online news)

History’s Footprints

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Krasinski Park, Warsaw, 1930 – Oil on cardboard – by Moshe Rynecki

 

History always leaves a legacy behind for those who are willing to look for it. Elizabeth Rynecki is one such seeker. Recently I attended a talk Elizabeth gave about her “Chasing Portraits” film project, held in a beautiful women’s clubhouse nestled in the Sausalito hills overlooking San Francisco Bay. Elizabeth is the great-granddaughter of Moshe Rynecki, a prolific Warsaw-based artist who documented the Polish Jewish community in the interwar years (1918-39) in over 800 paintings and sculptures. Sadly, most of his body of work was lost in the Holocaust. Or so people thought. [Read more…]

Women of Resistance

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Esther Wajcblum is one of four women who died for their heroic stance inside Auschwitz

The world needs heroes. During the horrific Nazi-era of WWII, it was full of them. Anyone who resisted Hitler – in whatever manner – is a hero to me. Most knew they’d never live to tell their story. Yet they did it anyway. It is up to History to tell their truth. This is the story of the Auschwitz Revolt and the 4 brave women who stood up to Evil.

Yetta cast a furtive look around then poured a pinch of powder down her blouse. She’d been pilfering it in tiny bits for months now. Last month two girls had been caught during an inspection after work. They’d been hanged that night as a lesson to the rest. She was still petrified but resistance was the only thing she had left. If she did nothing, she’d be just another hapless lamb awaiting slaughter. [Read more…]