Survival through Art

March 19, 2015 by 2 Comments

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.

Balcony Copy

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

View of Buchenwald ART copy

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

March 7, 2015 by 1 Comment

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

May We Never Forget

January 27, 2015 by Leave a Comment

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

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)