Recently in holocaust art Category
As a member of many groups to do with the Holocaust and remembrance, I recently found an e-mail that sparked my interest. I came across the performance art piece KAMP, but Hotel Modern (a Dutch group of performers) took place at St. Ann's Warehouse. Due to the death of my grandmother, I missed the show, but I vigorously searched for clips on YouTube. KAMP attempts to present the daily life of Auschwitz utilizing a scale model of the camp, complete with handmade puppets. A performance devoid of words, it attempts to bring the audience into the horrific, but impossible to understand world of a concentration camp.
Granted, I haven't seen the entire performance, but I had one major complaint with it. Although I did enjoy the concept, the lighting and the music, I felt too much emphasis was put on the masses and not enough put on the individual. Personally, I feel the only way people can make connections to the Holocaust (and bridge it to current happenings) is to recognize the humanity in the victims. When puppets stuck together to form rows of prisoners are placed on stage, it is hard to get a sense of any individual, which is the real loss in the Holocaust or any other genocide. We aren't losing masses of stick people, but actual people with families, hopes and dreams, faults and flaws. We are losing people just like you and me, which I feel is always essential to make people begin to understand something so outlandish. A well written character passing away under the thumb of an oppressive regime is much more heart breaking than watching masses of faceless, characterless people go to slaughter--at least in my opinion.
The installation is over in New York (although may be playing elsewhere), but you can look at a video here:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCWNQ2g9bLk">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCWNQ2g9bLk
</a>
What do YOU think?
You can view Hotel Modern's website here.
Granted, I haven't seen the entire performance, but I had one major complaint with it. Although I did enjoy the concept, the lighting and the music, I felt too much emphasis was put on the masses and not enough put on the individual. Personally, I feel the only way people can make connections to the Holocaust (and bridge it to current happenings) is to recognize the humanity in the victims. When puppets stuck together to form rows of prisoners are placed on stage, it is hard to get a sense of any individual, which is the real loss in the Holocaust or any other genocide. We aren't losing masses of stick people, but actual people with families, hopes and dreams, faults and flaws. We are losing people just like you and me, which I feel is always essential to make people begin to understand something so outlandish. A well written character passing away under the thumb of an oppressive regime is much more heart breaking than watching masses of faceless, characterless people go to slaughter--at least in my opinion.
The installation is over in New York (although may be playing elsewhere), but you can look at a video here:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCWNQ2g9bLk">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCWNQ2g9bLk
</a>
What do YOU think?
You can view Hotel Modern's website here.
Being a hopeful Holocaust scholar, writing a Young Adult book on the
Holocaust and being a Jew, the Holocaust is constantly in the corners of
my mind these days. Naturally, someone driven to be a Holocaust scholar
or write a book about it would think about it more than most people,
but lately it's pervaded all of my work.
The other night, I sat around with a group of friends as we talked about different things going on in our lives. Someone spouted the age old wisdom that "It all works out in the end", which someone else challenged saying that "It does all work out, unless it doesn't." Being me, I brought the subject of genocide to the table asking whether or not the Holocaust, indeed, "worked out" for the victims. To say everything works out in the end when regarding the mass murder of innocents doesn't quite make sense. On a more micro level, it can be hard to say that everything works out in the end for children who die of serious illnesses, etc. Sometimes I find myself wondering if everything works out in the end only for those of us fortunate to have everything work out.
My friend argued that good things have come of the Holocaust. I'm not sure where I stand on this statement, as I'm not someone who buys into the idea that the Holocaust happened for an actual reason. At least, to this point in my life, all of the reasons people have proposed to me haven't seemed rational. I guess when discussing the Holocaust, there fails to be a rationale.
This friend cited that one good thing that came out of the Holocaust was Lisa Kudrow reuniting with her long lost relatives on "Who Do You Think You Are?". While that episode was certainly touching, and probably available on NBC's website, it is hard to justify that the Holocaust is equal to that.
However, if you read Imre Kertesz's work, Fatelessness in particular, he speaks without reservation of the joy and humanity found in the Holocaust. The message of the movie, which he was heavily involved in, is no doubt a message of humanity and the "good times" spent in the camps.
Recently, I discovered Ruth Kugler's memoir Still Alive, in which she says "Absolutely nothing good came out of the concentration camps," she writes, recalling an argument with a naive German graduate student, "and he expects catharsis, purgation, the sort of thing you go to the theatre for?"
This is perhaps an argument that could go on cyclically forever. We cannot take the Holocaust back, so looking forward, what we can do is control our own future and look for the good in the cinders and ashes of it.
Maybe not everything works out for the best, but maybe looking forward, we can move toward healing the wounds.
The other night, I sat around with a group of friends as we talked about different things going on in our lives. Someone spouted the age old wisdom that "It all works out in the end", which someone else challenged saying that "It does all work out, unless it doesn't." Being me, I brought the subject of genocide to the table asking whether or not the Holocaust, indeed, "worked out" for the victims. To say everything works out in the end when regarding the mass murder of innocents doesn't quite make sense. On a more micro level, it can be hard to say that everything works out in the end for children who die of serious illnesses, etc. Sometimes I find myself wondering if everything works out in the end only for those of us fortunate to have everything work out.
My friend argued that good things have come of the Holocaust. I'm not sure where I stand on this statement, as I'm not someone who buys into the idea that the Holocaust happened for an actual reason. At least, to this point in my life, all of the reasons people have proposed to me haven't seemed rational. I guess when discussing the Holocaust, there fails to be a rationale.
This friend cited that one good thing that came out of the Holocaust was Lisa Kudrow reuniting with her long lost relatives on "Who Do You Think You Are?". While that episode was certainly touching, and probably available on NBC's website, it is hard to justify that the Holocaust is equal to that.
However, if you read Imre Kertesz's work, Fatelessness in particular, he speaks without reservation of the joy and humanity found in the Holocaust. The message of the movie, which he was heavily involved in, is no doubt a message of humanity and the "good times" spent in the camps.
Recently, I discovered Ruth Kugler's memoir Still Alive, in which she says "Absolutely nothing good came out of the concentration camps," she writes, recalling an argument with a naive German graduate student, "and he expects catharsis, purgation, the sort of thing you go to the theatre for?"
This is perhaps an argument that could go on cyclically forever. We cannot take the Holocaust back, so looking forward, what we can do is control our own future and look for the good in the cinders and ashes of it.
Maybe not everything works out for the best, but maybe looking forward, we can move toward healing the wounds.
The Holocaust Channel opens today with the first presentation that was ever shared with this web site. Back in 1994 a teacher in Paradise, California taught the Holocaust to students using poetry, painting, and imagination.
They were generous enough to share their entire work here, please check out the pictures and visit the site to read
They were generous enough to share their entire work here, please check out the pictures and visit the site to read
Lonely children
Crying of hunger
Light as a feather
Fragile as glass
People afraid
to to to sleep
knowing if they
will live the next
day.
I need a friend
to hold my hand
to keep me safe.
