Judith Goldstein
Artworks
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Judith Goldstein Goldstein reveals, "The Last Journey is from my memories of the Stutthof concentration camp. I saw these wagons with dead bodies taken to the crematorium." |
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Vilno Ghetto, 1994 Collage This triangular work is often 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. Goldstein's medium is the collage. What looks like two downward arrows is a stylized "VOV" in Hebrew. The backwards "h" is a Hebrew "GIMMEL," which together mean "VILNO GHETTO." |
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Crematories, 1991 Collage Crematories shows victims being burned and their faces emerging as clouds of smoke in the sky. This is an image used by Paul Celan, famous Jewish poet and survivor from Bukovina, in his poem, "Deathfugue." |
Artist's Statement
Goldstein is a survivor of the Vilna ghetto and Stutthof Concentration camp, near Danzig (Gdansk), now living in New Rochelle, NY. Goldstein evokes childhood memories of how she saw the Swastika and other positive and negative themes around her. The triangular work is often 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. Goldstein's medium is the collage.
I am a Holocaust survivor, born in Vilno (Vilna), Poland. In 1941, under the Nazi occupation, most Jews of Vilno were placed in the ghetto. About 50,000 Jews of the city were led to Ponar, a place in the forest outside Vilno, shot to death and thrown into pits. Most of my family are buried there. At the liquidation of the ghetto in 1943, I was shipped with my mother to concentration camps, Riga in Latvia, Stutthof and later Torun, Poland. There, I went through the tunnel of death, but survived by many miracles. My father never returned, my mother and brother survived. I am able to turn my experiences of horror and degradation into artworks. The Last Journey is from my memories of the Stutthof concentration camp. I saw these wagons with dead bodies taken to the crematorium.
Technical Applications
Questions:
- The artist is trying to convey her childhood memories. Do these images seem to convey a childhood sense of the event?
- How do Goldstein's images differ from others in this exhibition?
- What is the purpose of the cart in the collage?
- Vilna Ghetto shows life inscribed within the triangle. What symbols and images do you see here?
Also see Joys and Sorrows.