Holocaust Series

After the publication of my father-in-law’s book, “Witness to Annihilation” by Brassy's in 1994, my family visited Poland and Ukraine.  Based on that experience, I began this series to initially process the intense emotional experience in a visual way.  As years have gone by, the subject continues to intrigue me, as I pursue the issues of memory, historical record, intolerance, communication, and vagaries of human nature.

My father-in-law, Dr. Samuel Drix, or Papa as I affectionately call him, was a medical doctor when the war began in the region of Poland called Galicia.  The German Army invaded his native city of Lwow in July 1941.  By November 1943 this region was declared “cleansed of Jews” by the chief SS General Katzmann.  Only less than one half of one percent of Lwow’s Jews survived the war.  For these Jews, there was no miracle, no Raoul Wallenberg, no Oskar Shindler.  Because so few survived, little has been written about the horrors of Janowska camp, nor of the Lwow Ghetto.

Papa survived and promised himself that someday he would write about what happened, to let the world know the truth, and to speak for the many who perished and who cannot speak for themselves.  The original form of the book was a 100-page memoir written in Polish (now housed at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem) first written right after the war.  In 1989, Papa began working on the book again.  He spoke on audio tapes in his native tongue, which were then transcribed into English in Warsaw, Poland.  My husband and I then spent 3 ½ yeas editing these transcriptions.  Thus the book was finally completed.

Papa retired from practicing medicine at the age of 80, but continued working in affiliation with the German Consulate in New York City examining Holocaust victims who submitted war reparations claims to Germany.  He was also an instrumental witness at war-crimes trials after the war, and his testimony was responsible for bringing Nazi killers to justice.

“Witness to Annihilation” is Papa’s testimony to his lost world, but also a tribute to his stubborn will to live and survive for the sake of his family whom it loved so dearly.  It is a heroic, tragic, inspiring account of a man who witnessed some of humanity’s worst crimes, but who maintained his own humanity throughout.  His life is living evidence that he succeeded in his sacred duty to survive and tell his story, so that all will remember.  To remember the ugly face of intolerance, prejudice, and hatred. 

For those of you who are interested in the larger discussion about the Holocaust effect in contemporary art, please view the following link to a Symposium that took place at the Magnus Museum in Berkeley CA in 2009.  The video is 105 minutes in length.  http://fora.tv/2009/01/25/Symposium_The_Holocaust_Effect_in_Contemporary_Art

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