Docents Training Session

Docents Training Session - Witness and Legacy South Bend Museum of Art

  1. Imprtant Notes
  2. Important Terms
  3. Process
  4. Aspects of Painting
  5. Keywords I
  6. Keywords II
  7. Keywords III

Important Notes for Docents

  1. Docents should read, catalogue and watch 24 minute film about the exhibition. Free copies are available of the video from The Regis Foundation.
  2. Consult three web sites for more information of the exhibition. The Knoxville site is a vertual tour which can be linked to existing site for South Bend Museum of Art web site:
    1. Minnesota site: Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies . Click "visuals" and then "Witness and Legacy."
    2. Knoxville Museum of Art Virtual Tour.

Each of these may be connected to the South Bend Museum of Art web site.

Important Terms

Victims of the Holocaust: Jews and Gypsies. Who is a Jew?

By traditional Jewish law: a community of faith descended from the ancient Israelites (Hebrews) who were the first people to adopt monotheism ("the chosen people concept").

Elements of fifth are found in the Hebrew Bible, which is often called 'Old Testament" by Christians. The term "Old Testament," however, is not used by scholars because it implies inferiority via a via the Christian tradition. Important elements of the faith include:

  1. Belief in a monotheistic God who is eternal, omnipotent, omnipresent, "One" but does not have human form.
  2. Observance of Ten Commandments, especially Sabbath.
  3. Male circumcision on 8th day after birth (Covenant of Abraham).
  4. Observance of dietary laws (means of establishing a boundary) called "Kashrut" or Kosher laws.

From the 18th century on, Judaism went through religious changes producing several variants Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist. The most traditional is called 'orthodox,whose rights are most geared toward tradition. The other forms have lessened some rituals in order to more adequately confront the demands of modernity.

The same laws existed for Gypsies in terms of "race," and grandparentage.

Who is a Jew by Nazi Law?

The law of September 15, 1935, The Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor," (Nuremberg Laws) defined Jews by principles of 'racism.'

  1. Full Jew. anyone with 3 or 4 Jewish grandparents, irrespective of their current religious affiliation.
  2. Misting First degree (Half-caste) Two Jewish grandparents.
  3. Mishling Second Degree. One Jewish Grandparent.
  4. Aryan No Jewish grand parental blood.

Note: This law closed off avoiding being a Jew by religious conversion to Christianity.

There were many German Jews who had become Christians by volition who were deported and killed because the Nazi law defined them as Jews "racially." Thus, being a 'Jew' in Nazi Germany was a "racial" identification, rather than religious. However, the Nazis also attacked aspects of the Jewish religion--synagogues, Torah scrolls, and the like.

Gypsies

The other principal victims by "race." Gypsies came to Europe from India in the 14th and 15th centuries and were divided into two main groups: Rams and Sinti. The name gypsy came from the belief they were tram Egypt, hence the name 'Little Egypt," from where 'gypsy is derived."

Two phrases in English identify victims of the Holocaust.

  1. "To Jew somebody down in price" (originally French "jeu").
  2. "To gyp somebody."

There are no paintings by Roma or Sinti in these works as the exhibit was limited to American artists. No American gypsy artists could be found. About half a million gypsies died in the Holocaust, perhaps more. The best representative of a Shut artist is Karl Stojko, a survivor of Auschwitz and Buchenwald, who lives in Vienna and whose works have been exhibited in the USA through the Austrian Embassy. Other American artists, such as Judith Liberman and Demurs Rothschild, have referred to the victimization of Gypsies in their paintings and other artistic works.

Other Victims

Poles, Jehovah's Witnesses, Homosexuals, Communists, Social Democrats, political dissidents, natives of occupied countries, members of partisan groups, pacifists. Members of these groups had to have "done something" to be persecuted. Homosexuals, for example, were persecuted along the same lines in many other countries outside of Germany, but not in concentration camps and were not executed, as was the case in Germany. But only Jews and Gypsies were persecuted on a racial ground-the "crime was having the wrong grandparents." This explains why Jewish children were killed in so many numbers, as was not the case with other groups.

Holocaust

"A burnt offering; implies some mystical religious relationship where there may be none, but the word existed well before the events of 1939-1945. The first historian to use the word was H R. Trevor-Roper, who wrote a fast history of the war in the Fall, 1945. The Hebrew word is "SHOAH," meaning a great darkness that defies explanation. As the word Holocaust has been misappropriated by other groups, there is a current preference toward the word SHOAH. The Vatican Document of March 19, 1998, "We Remember,' used the word Shoah.

There were 9 million Jews living in Europe In 1939. Six million perished. among whom were 1.5 million Jewish Children. The question is not numbers killed, but intent. The intention of the Third Reich was to kill every Jew in Europe. This is what makes the Holocaust unique.

Genocide

A word Invented in 1944 by United Nations' researcher Raphael lemkin to describe the extermination of the Jews of Europe. His definition was expanded in the United Nations Convention on the Punishment and Prevention of Genocide of December, 1940, Article II:

"In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in pert. a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. as such:

  1. Killing members of the group.
  2. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group.
  3. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.
  4. Imposing measures intended to prevent birts within the group.
  5. Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

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Process

Process of the Holocaust

  1. Identifying victims by birth records or other means.
  2. Isolation--removal from schools, work place, deprivation of rights.
  3. Concentration--formation of ghettos once World War II began. Use of the Yellow Star as a means of identification (this has variations).
  4. Destruction, first in massacres and through starvation and disease in the ghettos, but later through use of carbon monoxide gas in five death camps sited in Poland carpet, Treblinka, Chelmno, Sobibor, Maidanek; Oswiecim and Birkenau, two branches of the Auschwitz camp, used Zyklon-B gas manufactured by I.G. Forum. the largest German Corporation.

Who Was Responsible?

  1. Nazi Party, which was elected to power.
  2. German people?
  3. Collaborators? Who were they?
  4. People who benefited by disappearance of the Jews?
  5. Corporations, doctors, lawyers. Neutral governments. The Swiss Banks?
  6. Failure of allied countries and democracies to take immigrants?

Who Carried Out The Holocaust?

  1. The Nazis devised the racial basis but needed large scale support of their own population to achieve it. This category is called. 'perpetrators.' The SS was the main organization responsible for 'the final solution"
  2. 'Bystanders' : people who did not intervene of did intervene. This also includes people who were generically called 'Crushers."
  3. If people who identified themselves as "Christians" carried out the Holocaust. what does the event say about Christianity? Many American Christians have a hard time with the notion that "Christians" could carry out such an event. But the definition of Christian is not iron-clad, as is largely a self-definition through certain theological foundations relating to acceptance of Jesus as messiah. But a deconstruction of 'Christian history" indicates much horror took place over the past 1500 years. and many theologians ask difficult questions about these episodes. However, religion was not the Issue in the Holocaust--the problem with Jews was they were viewed as an inferior 'race.'

Why the Jews?

  1. Background of anti-Semitism.
  2. Scriptural beliefs about the Jews.
  3. Jews were emancipated in the 19th century, overcoming long-standing boundaries that kept them as a separate society.
  4. Jews as"communists,""capitalists; "Christ-killers," "sinners"
  5. My not the Jews?
  6. Mechanical destructive process of the modern state?

Did it Happen?

Holocaust denial is an attempt to rehabilitate Hitler and to provide a forum for anti-Semitism. There are more than 30 million pages of documentation on the Holocaust and Nazi era, and more photography and film than In any prior event. There are also survivors who are available to provide testimony.

Witness and Legacy Is not a historical, but an artistic exhibition. It deals with the problems of how to render such a difficult subject artistically. In this respect it Is experimental. But another question to ask Is whether or not art can "heal" some of the wounds of the past and enhance our memory of it?

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Aspects of Painting

Symbols

  1. Religious: these symbols often ask the question about the presence and absence of God? Did God have any role in the Holocaust? or was it totally the work of man through human freedom?
    1. 10 Commandments often in shattered form.
    2. 6th Commandment: "Though Shall Not Commit Murder." (It does not say "Thou Shall Not Kill.")
    3. 6 also stands for the 6 million victims.
    4. Cross brings in Christian role as perpetrators and rescuers.
    5. Kaddish, a Jewish prayer for the departed, which extols the greatness of God.
    6. Crucifixion imagery. Pope John Paul II has called Auschwitz "The Golgotha of our century."
  2. Symbols of Destruction
    1. Massacres
    2. Gas Chambers/Crematoria
    3. Barbed Wire
    4. Concentration Camps
    5. Barracks
    6. Chimneys
    7. Smoke
    8. Landscape as Metaphor
    9. Use of Photography
    10. Re-creation of Memorial Spaces
  3. Mediums in this show:
    1. Painting, figurative to abstract
    2. Sculpture
    3. Photography
    4. Cartoon
    5. Graphics
    6. Lithographs
    7. Film-video
    8. Room installation or environment

Key Elements to Emphasize in Leading a Group

  1. Don't try to cover everything in the exhibition-it is too large.
  2. Use statements by artists from the catalogue.
  3. If you known other art examples, use them.
  4. Ask the group what they see in the painting and use that as a basis of discussion.
  5. One can ask questions of what the Holocaust has to do with tolerance/intolerance.
  6. For installations, let the printed information provided be sufficient, or let the group see the Installation, then ask questions.
  7. Ask or make available information about other victimized groups and how they make their plight known.

Issues Not to Emphasize

  1. Do not try to impose any sense of guilt on a non-Jewish or German-American audience. In advertising or discourse, it is correct to say that the show does not accuse, but the visual narratives do ask questions. The Holocaust was conceived in Nazi Germany, a government elected to power in 1933.
  2. Do not try to suggest this happened W the Jews because they did not accept Christ. A simple answer b that is how to explain the death of 1.5 million children. This approach makes Adolf Hitler an agent of God.

Three Groups in the Exhibition

  1. Survivors and refugees: artists who came to the United States as children are refugees; those who survived in hiding, or were in ghettos and concentration and death camps are "survivors."
    • Samuel Bak - Survivor from Vilna, Lithuania (formerly Poland and USSR).
    • Judith Goldstein - Survivor of Stutthof Concentration Camp from Vilna, Lithuania (formerly Poland and USSR).
    • Gerda Meyer Bernstein - Refugee from Hagen, Germany in Kindertransport.
    • Edith Altman - Child refugee from Altemberg, Germany in 1940.
    • Gabriel Rossmer - Child refugee from Bamberg, Germany, 1938 with her family.
    • Alice Lok Cahana - Survivor of Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen originally from Hungary (her story is found in the Academy Award Winning film "The Last Days").
    • Kitty Klaidman - Family was hidden in Slovakia by Christian family, Sadin, Czechoslovakia.
  2. Children of survivors: the second generation, those who have been raised with the nightmares of their parents and the extended trauma of victimization and survival. Pier Marion and Mindy Weisel's works deal with these themes.
    • Pier Marion
    • Debbie Teicholz
    • Mindy Weisel
    • Joyce Lyon - Child of pre-war refugee from Poland.
    • Art Spiegelman
  3. Empathizers: Those who did not live through the Holocaust but who are driven Intellectually or emotionally to do work in the subject, knowing that the finished product will probably not be sold. Such Musts have is rely of histoncized memory that comes tram books, sunvivors' stories, photographs.
    • Susan Erony
    • Pearl Hirshfield
    • Zbigniew Libera
    • Mauricio Lasansky
    • Seth Kramer
    • Marlene Miller
    • Larry Rivers
    • Shirley Bamberg
    • Arnold Trachtman
    • Jeffrey Wolin
    • Jerome Witkin

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Keywords I

1.Larry Rivers, Empathizer, well-known New York artists raises questions of memory, how we remember, ii we will remember. Erasing the Past I is a portrait of a survivor, dervived from a liberation photo, with the image of the crematoria in the background. Rivers believes this was the defining image for Plural Levi, Italian holocaust survivor who was a strong influence on the artist. Erasing the Past II' appeared as a New York Times Magazine cover and raises the issue of memory of survivors, and how we as viewers, the carriers of memory, remember. Rivers uses an erasing technique in his drawing. The Four Seasons at Blrkenau Is a work on foam board, modeled after a photo the artists saw in The Auschwitz Album The photo depicted, as the painter noted, 'Jews waiting to be killed."

2. Jerome Witkin, Empathizer, lives in Syracuse, NY "Stations" evokes idea of trains, departures, resettlement, and also the 14 stations of the areas The title of the painting "The Beating Station: Berlin, 1933" refers to the period before the implementation of the race laws. The scene shows the rape of a Jewish woman, documented by the artist from newspaper accounts.

3. Kitty Klaidman, Was a hidden child, like Anne Frank, and now lives in DC. She and her family hid in an Slovakian rural attic space for several years. She and her family could come out only at night Mat symbols do you see in her abstract works? Crosses, hope by use of light, fear of darkness and forests in the Xerox generated works on canvas, hope for inter-faith friendship because of the family that helped her.

4. Judith Goldstein, A survivor of the Vilna ghetto and Stutthof Concentration camp, now living in New Rochelle, NY. She evokes childhood memories of how she saw the Swastika and other positive and negative themes around her. The triangular work is open said to look like a native-American collage. It contains elements about the positive culture the Jews tried to maintain in the ghettos and camps, against all odds. Read the didactic next to this work The artist has replaced two of the original works in the exhibition for newer works to accommodate a retrospective show in New York The new paintings in the exhibit are:

Note that both of these works use most of the surface, as opposed to 'Vilna Ghetto.' The artist now feels that she has been more successful in addressing questions she was never able to deal with during her lost childhood.

5. Mauricio Lasansky, Born in Argentina, lives in Iowa city. HIS most famous works are the Nazi Drawings (1965) at the University of Iowa gallery. Kaddish is the prayer for the dead. These works are divided into an earthly zone of pain, end heavenly zone of peace. Ask about numbers. The text of the Kaddish should appear as a didactic (note: Kiddush is the prayer for wine, Kaddish, prayer for the dead).

6. Samuel Bak, Survivor of Vilna Ghetto, lives in Boston. and a surrealist painter who uses Biblical imagery. His style evokes some of the paintings of the Renaissance in terms of how he treats the surface, but the style of paintings is more like the 20th Century Belgian painter Magri His works all contain mysteries which the viewer must uncover. Note that some works have been replaced from the original exhibition because owners did not anticipate an extended tour.

"Lo Tirzakh" is based on the ft Commandment. 'Thou Shall not Commit Murder.' The canvas shows the two commandments as a destroyed garden, with the form of the commandments having the potential to become a grave. The grave like image is filled with broken letters. Wthin the right portion is a smaller version of the commandments with God's revealed name 'Adonai' In Hebrew, but no commandments. The viewer is left with the vision of a post-Holocaust world without morality and ethics, unless he himself engages in what is called "Tikkun Olam,' or 'the repair of the world." Implicit in the artistic vison is the need for all to help repair the world and find a way to inhibit violence.

Implicit also in many of Bak's works is a Christian message The philosopher Emil Fackenheim has asked the difficult question: "where would Jesus of Nazareth have been in 1943?" He answers: "Ii he was who he said he was, he would have been deported to Auschwitz, killed and cremated--hence denying the possibility of bodily resurrection and thus the coming of Christianity. By killing Jews, Nazi Germany was also creating the basis far undermining Christianity in Europe The Third Reich lasted only 12 years, although it supposed to last a thousand years.

"Last Movement" (1996) depicts the sound of silence, a group of angels whose wings have turned to alone, who are trying to play musical instruments but cannot. The landscape around them is barren except for the debris and ripped out musical scores The figures are perhaps a commentary an both the impotence of man and God during the Holocaust. It angels are divine messengers, their message did not get through to those who were persecuted. Thus, as the wings turn to stone, so the image of God may be said to recede in the contemporary world This raises the question of victimization: is God the ultimate victim of the Holocaust? How are Jews and Christians to believe in a compassionate and caring God after the Holocaust? This is a frightening question, but may provide some answers to the state of the ward in 1999 which now experiences genocide.

"Triptych" is read from right to ref( as in Hebrew. The first part dwells on Jewish life atter the Holocaust. with the reality and memory of the chimneys of Auschwitz. The middle section shows the Ten Commandments, withal[ the 'thou shalt nots ° effaced Only in Hebrew is seen "Anochi Adonai" ('I am the Lord thy God, who brought you out of Egypt, from slavery to freedom" see Exodus) The left section provides some choices for humanity. the commandments can become a grave or a cesspool, or a new set of commandments can be hewn out of a new Mount Sinai. The choice is for man. Note that the blue rocks in the left panel appear like Jewish men praying in prayer shawls.

"Ponar," is a metaphorical drawing of the killing site outside of Vlna. Instead of a trench with dead bodies, Bak uses a Star of David as a ditch on the ground, symbolizing Jewish destruction. Note the barren landscapes. In this drawing, the artist uses charcoal, a form of ash, which is what the victims became.

"Group with Blue Angel" was originally in the exhibition, withdrawn and then purchased back by The Regis Foundation to maintain it in the exhibition This is a strange, surrealistic vision of post-Holocaust humanity. The figures, all disfunctional, are presided over by a rusted angel, perhaps an indication of the powerlessness of God to intercede in the Holocaust because of free-will. To some, Bak's works may seem theologically pessimistic. However, absence of God does not mean death of God. The disfunctional human figures may be interpreted in varying ways: a warrior or knight, a blind man (whose white blank bib on his chest is perhaps a reference to a similar figure In Marc Chagall's White Crucifixion of 1938/39), a technological humanity with disconnections rather than connections, white the only wholesome figure is a corporate executive typein the background, perhaps a reflection of corporate culpability in producing the Holocaust. Bak's works are a testimony to the idea that a literal narrative is not necessary to achieve the idea that the Holocaust represents a major disturbance in the flow of civilization.

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Keywords II

7. Debbie Teicholz, Lives in New Jersey. 2nd generation. Her photography reflects manipulated image with tinting to suggest how survivors and their extended family see common elements of today's work in the context of the past Note the triptych of cut logs, and the effect of appearing like bodies When the artists sees tracks, she thinks of deportations. Title of her photographs is "Prayer by the Wall." How does prayer relate to these images

8. Susan Erony, Lives in Boston, an empathizer. Has studied the German past, its technology, and also ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, to produce a series of works which are a discourse on mass killing. The 'temple"refers to the building of Auschwitz by Rudolph Hoess.

9. Art Spiegelman , 2nd Generation who chose to approach the story of his parents through cartoon and CD-ROM. Is this art or literature? MAUS won Pulitzer Prize. Is the cartoon an acceptable medium for a subject like the Holocaust? Spiegelman tells several stories that of his parents who survived Auschwitz a lost baby brother, and his own dilemma as both a child of survivors dealing with parents who lost their youth, and the problems of his own Jewish identity. In MAUS. Jews are depicted as mice, Poles as pigs, Germans as cats, and Americans as dogs.

10. Joyce Lyon , 2nd Generation, living in Minneapolis, uses landscape as a metaphor The forests were places where killing took place, as well as where resistance developed. The actin( after much madmen, found that the forests of Poland looked very much like the Northern rural areas of the USA. Often, such landscapes become symbols of hidden hopes and memories, as well as unresolved issues. The killing often took place in forests. The Memorial at the Bergen-Belsen Concentration camps has the inscription: "Earth Reveal not the Blood Shed on Thee " Note the small didactics between these works which suggests some intellectual and artistic processes the artist has gone through, including a quote tram Prime Levi's poem, "Pliny."

11. Robert Barancik, Empathizer from Philadelphia, has created small notes, "Kvitl," which are beautiful and reflect that small artistic creations can be effective, Jews praying in Jerusalem often leave notes in the Western Wall, praying for the Messianic era to begin. Look closely at these--one can almost miss them when compared to scale of other works.

12. Shirley Samberg, Lives in New York and is an empathizer "Wrappings" make both general and specific statements about human suffering. She had done other sculptures relating to the Holocaust, especially the theme of "absence" At the Telfair, Samberg's "Wrappings" may be contrasted with the dignified plaster casts of classical works to the main sculpture hall. What does the contrast say about perceptions of the dignity of mankind?

13. Marlene Miller, Empathizer living near Philadelphia, "Sleepwagon" evokes image of deportation and the killing of children and adults. The artist is a puppet maker, and was inspired to make this work after hearing testimony of an SS Man who said that which means 'puppets' The middle of the pedestal refers to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and contains photos and text from The Simon Report which documented the destruction of the Ghetto. Around the base are "Kaddish' candles. The artist may be asking if we have the burden of remembering these children. Is this work too literal? Is it a cliché?

14. Jeffrey Wolin , Empathizer, from Indiana University has created a remarkable series of photos of survivors with their stories written on the plate. These photos must be read. Wolin has a larger series at the Chicago Art Institute If you need to read only one or two, try the first and last as amazing stories of survival and hope. The photo of Rena Grynbalt speaks to the question of how mothers who have lost children, in whatever circumstance, think about their losses.

15. Arnold Trachtman, Lives In Boston and is an empathizer. His work are pop-art in form. Integrate ideas from montaging movies and are very political. He identifies who are the real culprits--not necessarily the Nazis, but the corporate CEO's who aided them, plus the false ambitions of politicians like Neville Chamberlain, who believe that through appeasement, "peace in our time" was possible (REF: Munich Agreement, October, 1938). Suggestion: carry a bottle of Bayer aspirin, or BASF Audio/video tape. These are two of Farben's companies today. Bayer performed medical experiments on inmates at Auschwitz.

The Nuremberg trials were really perhaps the "trials of the 20th century:' These were the indictments against the Nazi leaders, corporate CEOs, medical doctors:

  1. Crimes against peace: planning and wing war of aggression in violation of international treaties.
  2. War crimes: violations of the laws of war. murder, ill-treatment, slave labor of the civilian population, mistreatment of pows., wanton destruction, etc.
  3. Crimes against humanity: murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, other inhumane acts against any civilian population. before or during the war; persecutions on racial or religious grounds.

Major trials at Nuremberg were:

  1. Trial of top 20 leaders who survived.
  2. Trial of members of the General Staff-Wehrmacht.
  3. Trial of industrialists Krupp, Farben. Bayer, etc.
  4. Trial of leaders of the SS and Einsatzgruppen.
  5. Trial of doctors who used human beings for medical experiments.

Note that Trachtman shows Black American soldiers guarding Alfried Krupp at his trial However, remember that Afro Americans fought in segregated units and returned to segregation in the United States. In addition. Hider often quoted the Americans about race policy and sterilization of people who had genetic defects. In 1938, the Germans themselves sterilized 873 "Black Germans; born of inter-racial sexual relations between French occupation troops and German women in 1920.

Information of Nazi Eugenics ("The Science of Race") and Victimization of the Handicapped:

1913 Eugen Procter (anatomist University Freiburg) recommends people of mixed blood be given minimal protection as "race Interior to ourselves".

1918. Siemens writes about racial hygiene. Human race will decline it genetically unfit are allowed to breed.

1920 Hoche and Binding write Permitting the destruction of Lives Not Worth Living.

1929 National Socialist Physicians League founded By 1933, 6% of the medical profession has joined before Hitler came to power Main interest. purifying German of Jewish Bolshevism. 50% join by 1944. By 1932, 20 institutes of race science established at Universities in Germany.

At same time, 15.000 people have been sterilized in the US.
USA is segregated society and considered by Hitler the world leader in racial purity issues.

July, 1933 Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring--sterilization.

1934 Genetic Courts established.

1937 Sterilization of "Rhineland Bastards" ("Black" Germans).

1938 Five psychiatry professors dratt law to permit killing of psychiatric patients. IN USA, AMA rejects black physicians and is widely reported in Germany.

June, 1939. All twins born in Germany must be registered.

August 31, 1939 Sterilization campaign ended after 400,000 sterilizations, 2,000 deaths.

Post Nuremberg Trials: Informed consent for patients in hospitals is a result of Nazi experiments The Code for Doctors was adopted in 1947.

Informational note: There was one Black-American-Jewish artist interned in the concentration camps: Joseph Nassy. He was an artist and his works were on display recently at the United Stales Holocaust Memorial Museum in DC. Hitler considered "Negroes" a danger as well, but there were very few living in Europe as Black Slavery was never introduced in Europe. Nazi scientists believed Jews had "10% Negro Blood".

Informational note: All Japanese of American and ancestry were put into concentration camps in Western States after the Japanese attack on Past Harbor. These people, mainly US Citizens, lost all of their property. Only about 18,000 Americans of German ancestry were interned, and some Italians, but only if involved in potentially subversive activity.

September I, 1939 Euthanasia program starts 70,000 mental patients killed in hospitals or gassed through 1941. At the same time, Near Germany prohibits abortions.

1944: By 1944, 50% of Medical Doctors In Germany joined the Nazi party.

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Keywords III

16. Mindy Weisel, 2nd generation what, living in Washington, DC, suggests personal reflections through abstraction and some solitude. "The Drowned and the Saved" reflects on a statement by Primo Levi that the bear were those who drowned, while the saved often had to make uncomfortable moral compromises. On the suitcase (you can pick it up) are her father's Auschwitz number, the work 'Shema' (Listen) in Hebrew (in red), and in the small postage stamp-like area in white, green and blue is pointed over the text of the " Tefillat Ha Derekh"-The Prayer for Jewish Travelers. 'Prayer Shawl' seems to ask the question in a quiet way as to whether one can pray after Auschwitz. Weisel illustrates the covers for the Collier actions of the writings of Primp Levi

17. Seth Kramer, Empathizes, from New Jersey, originally from the show 'Too Jewish' at the Jewish Museum in New York. Film shows the film-maker trying to conceptualize the killing of six million Jews by counting 6 million grains of lice. This can be Worked! to individually by viewers on cordless headsets. Free copies of this video are available for schools and teachers

18. Zbigniew Libera, Flat printed boxes of 'Correcting Device: LEGO Concentration Camp' Libera lives in Warsaw, Poland was imprisoned in connection with political work for the Solidarity movement during the early 19609. Pardoned through the intersession of Pope John Paul II, Libera's art focuses on how children's views of the world are modeled by toys. His work also focuses on the ideal views of the human body. The LEGO Concentration Camp was originally made with the support of the LEGO branch in Warsaw. However, they did not approve of the final product, which they did not anticipate to be a concentration camp. Libels's concept is that the concentration camp exists only in the adult world, not in the children's Idea of fantasy. One Auschwitz survivor, upon seeing the actual boxes containing the fully buildable concentration camp remarked: "It's a shame they didn't market this in 1933. At least we would have known it was coming!"

Installations

19. Pier Marton, 2nd generation, living in St. Louis. "JEW" is a black corridor where one enters a simulated box car to see a film about the 2nd generation of Holocaust survivors, all born in Europe, now living in America. Audience is encouraged to write a short comment after seeing the film. This is a good film for all individuals who have difficulties with parents and where violence has descended upon the family. Offensive comments should not be erased.

20. Gerda Meyer Bernstein, Chicago, was a member of the kinder transport to England in 1938. Her Work, "Shrine," Is a memorial to those who died, and a small attempt to recreate the stifling atmosphere of the camps. On the right of the installation are photos of the Commandant of Auschwitz, who was hanged after a trial in 1946 where he was accused of killing 2 million people. In this space, note the sound of the hay on the floor. Ask people in the group what they feel. The lamps on the floor are memorial lamps.

21. Pearl Hirshfield , Empathizer from Chicago. "Shadows of Auschwitz" is a light, shadow and mirror array memorializing the victims and survivors of Auschwitz, and also reminds us that we might become victims as well. On entering, the numbers 58/2364 were on the Jaworzno-Chrzanow train bound for Auschwitz that was derailed by partisans "Bieli" and "Nizzenzohn" are the artists parents names "Eingang" (Entrance) suggests entrance to a train ramp. On the minor, the first number is that of Primo Levi. The artist collects the numbers and keeps them in a tephillan (phylactery) pouch at her home The exit shows actual testaments from Holocaust survivors collected by the artists. Note the size in the catalogue is incorrect: size is 15 x 24 x 12 feet This installation is in the main room of the Sculpture Gallery, Telfair Museum of Art.

22. Edith Altman, Came to Chicago as child in 1938 from Germany. "Reclaiming theSymbol The Art of Memory" is an attempt to deconstruct what was once a normalsymbol. the swastika, which is now difficult to show because it was abused by theNazis. The artist uses the life-affirming numerological system of the Kabbala to exorcise evil and to show how we must make decisions about good and evil. Key elements:

23. Gabrielle Rossmer, Came from Germany at age one and now lives in Boston. 'In Search of the Lost Object' is a family history. Rossmer left Germany in 1938 Her grandparents tried to leave but eventually perished The installation tells the story. Encourage viewers to pick up and read documents from the floor. The audio explains the document wall. The standing figures are ghosts. The figures hung from the ceiling evoke images of the artists grandparents. who perished. The family was in the shin business. This has been exhibited in Germany.

Note the artist depicts representations at "Ecclesia" and Synagoga" from the Bamberg Cathedral. These are found in the plaster prints on the wall. The former is a beautiful woman, symbol of fine church triumphant The latter shows a blindfolded woman, with the ten commandments upside dawn. These images appear in many medieval structures. What does it say about the roots of anti-Semitism?Possible artist for inclusion, uncertain as of May 24, 1999.

24. Alice Cahana, Houston artist and survivor of Auschwitz from Hungary. her work describes the terror and uncertainly of a selection, when prisoners were chosen for slave labor or death. Note the accompanying poem (note: this work is not In the catalogue). Gainers was in the gas chamber at Billowed in October, 1944 when the Sonderkommando Uprising took place and blew up a gas chamber Comma and the others present were told to dress and leave the gas chamber, the only such incident Stephen Spielberg's Academy Award Winning documentary from 1998, "The Last Days" included the story of Alice Lok Cahana as one of the five Hungarian survivors of the Holocaust.

Any questions or comments may be directed to chgs@umn.edu or 612-624-0256.

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