Page 106 - issue
P. 106
A REMEMBERING history and memories to challenge pre-
uschwitz conceived notions of an historic era. In
Vby Rochelle C. Eisenberg That tunnel, which Kestenberg addition to the local survivors’ collages
era Kestenberg will never forget and stories, this haunting exhibit fol-
that day, standing in front of a would return to several years ago with lows the town’s pre-Holocaust history,
dark tunnel in Budapest, alone where Jews and non-Jews lived side-by-
with her mother, shortly after her daughter, would later become the side, to its development into one of the
the Nazis invaded their country. most notorious death camps. Through
Faced with an uncertain future, focal point of a collage she created as photographs recently taken at
her mother tore her daughter’s Auschwitz and other Eastern European
yellow star off her coat, turned part of the Holocaust Memory camps to stories from local survivors,
her toward the tunnel, and said good- the exhibit provides a contemporary
bye. Reconstruction Project: A Sacred perspective to the art of remembering.
“I was given a Christian name and Culture Rebuilt. That collage and story, Visitors begin the journey several
told to live as a Christian girl to save centuries prior to the Holocaust, when
myself. I spent the remainder of the war and the one she made for her late hus- the Polish town of Oswiecim was a
hiding. Who knows what would have thriving Jewish community. Having set-
happened if I had stayed?” she recalls. band Felix, a concentration camp sur- tled in the town in the early 16th cen-
tury, by the 1860s Jews comprised 50
vivor, are part of the Jewish Museum of percent of the town’s population.
Maryland’s newest exhibit, Using photographs and documents,
A Town Known as Auschwitz: The Life
Remembering Auschwitz: History, and Death of a Community traces the
life of this small town and its Jewish res-
Holocaust, Humanity. idents from the 16th century through
the post-war period.
Through four interrelated exhibits,
Although the Jews weren’t always
Remembering Auschwitz: History, granted full rights as citizens, the
Holocaust, Humanity integrates both
98 u www.wherewhatwhen.com u
uschwitz conceived notions of an historic era. In
Vby Rochelle C. Eisenberg That tunnel, which Kestenberg addition to the local survivors’ collages
era Kestenberg will never forget and stories, this haunting exhibit fol-
that day, standing in front of a would return to several years ago with lows the town’s pre-Holocaust history,
dark tunnel in Budapest, alone where Jews and non-Jews lived side-by-
with her mother, shortly after her daughter, would later become the side, to its development into one of the
the Nazis invaded their country. most notorious death camps. Through
Faced with an uncertain future, focal point of a collage she created as photographs recently taken at
her mother tore her daughter’s Auschwitz and other Eastern European
yellow star off her coat, turned part of the Holocaust Memory camps to stories from local survivors,
her toward the tunnel, and said good- the exhibit provides a contemporary
bye. Reconstruction Project: A Sacred perspective to the art of remembering.
“I was given a Christian name and Culture Rebuilt. That collage and story, Visitors begin the journey several
told to live as a Christian girl to save centuries prior to the Holocaust, when
myself. I spent the remainder of the war and the one she made for her late hus- the Polish town of Oswiecim was a
hiding. Who knows what would have thriving Jewish community. Having set-
happened if I had stayed?” she recalls. band Felix, a concentration camp sur- tled in the town in the early 16th cen-
tury, by the 1860s Jews comprised 50
vivor, are part of the Jewish Museum of percent of the town’s population.
Maryland’s newest exhibit, Using photographs and documents,
A Town Known as Auschwitz: The Life
Remembering Auschwitz: History, and Death of a Community traces the
life of this small town and its Jewish res-
Holocaust, Humanity. idents from the 16th century through
the post-war period.
Through four interrelated exhibits,
Although the Jews weren’t always
Remembering Auschwitz: History, granted full rights as citizens, the
Holocaust, Humanity integrates both
98 u www.wherewhatwhen.com u
