By
Maggie Burnett
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Art helps keep Holocaust memories alive
Although the Holocaust officially ended 55 years ago, memories of what took place there continue to inspire artists to create works illustrating the terror associated with the event.
"Witness and Legacy: Contemporary Art about the Holocaust" opened last Thursday at the Tucson Museum of Art, 140 N. Main Ave. The work of 22 artists is portrayed throughout the exhibit, seven of which are actual survivors of the Holocaust, said gallery curator Julie Sasse.
"It's very moving," Sasse said. "I just think about the time and people who were desperate to get out."
Sasse explained that the artists in the exhibit fall into three categories -survivors, second generation survivors and empathizers, or those who "either through their religion or, for other reasons, they have decided to create works."
Gerda Meyer-Bernstein, a survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp and an artist represented in the exhibit, said despite the horrors of the Holocaust, she feels inspired by those who still visit Auschwitz to pay their respects.
"The main message is not the horrible reality but inspiration of the Holocaust. There are many other people like me who know there is still hope," she said. "I am not a pessimist. All my work is a very harsh reality, but there is always hope."
The Holocaust, or the Shoah, took place between 1933 and 1945, annihilating at least six million Jews, Catholic priests, communists, gypsies, homosexuals, disabled people and Soviet prisoners of war in Nazi concentration camps.
The exhibit includes a variety of media including photography, sculpture, paintings, needlepoint, collage and video. At least three of the pieces invite the viewers to walk through the installations in order to better understand the meaning behind the artistry.
"The fact that they are walking through it, they become participants in this memorial," Meyer-Bernstein said. "People have to react to it. They can hate it, but they can't help but have an emotional reaction to it."
Meyer-Bernstein also said her full-room installation in the exhibit, titled "Shrine," represents the type of cattle car used to transport people to the concentration camps.
The car in the gallery is lined with photographs of the ovens used to burn the bodies of the dead at Auschwitz as well as numerous photographs of Rudolph Hess, the director of the concentration camp. On each photo, Hess' eyes are gouged out.
The car is also bedded with straw, which represents desperation.
"The straw on the floor represents the last straw, when everything else had failed," Meyer-Bernstein said.
Among the 80 or more pieces presented in the exhibit is a section by Netty Schwartz Vanderpol, a former classmate of Anne Frank. Vanderpol narrowly survived the Holocaust when she was transported out of Auschwitz as part of the only prisoner exchange to take place in Switzerland, Sasse said.
One particular set of photographs by Jeffrey Wolin, an empathizer, must be read to be understood. The pictures, all depicting Holocaust survivors, were taken in each person's current home to represent safety, Sasse said. Their personal accounts of survival are superimposed on the background of each picture.
Sasse said that empathizers, though often not directly affected by the Holocaust, are still important.
"Some people say those who weren't there don't have a right to depict it," Sasse said.
Still, even if the empathizers were not there, they help to keep memories alive while introducing a different view of the Holocaust - which aids in preventing its repetition, she said.
"Witness and Legacy: Contemporary Art about the Holocaust" can be viewed at the Tucson Museum of Art through Oct. 29.
