“One Spring, Gurs Camp” (1941) by Karl Robert Bodek and Kurt Low, Yad Vashem Museum, Israel, Image courtesy of Yad Vashem Collection
WARNING: Graphic Images
Abuse comes in many forms. From 1933 to 1945 in Nazi Germany it was governmental, with the goal being complete extermination of the Jews [1].
The artworks comprising the Yad Vashem Collection were created by artists (Jewish and non-Jewish) between 1939 and 1945 to provide a living testament of the Holocaust [2A]. A hundred works from the collection were exhibited in Germany in 2016, just three years after the Alternative for Germany (AfD) was founded – a far Right party whose leader, Björn Höcke denigrated the Memorial to Murdered Jews of Europe [3][4].
Art in the concentration camps served simultaneously as a witness, a means of self-assertion, and an expression of optimism [2B].
The works are both heart wrenching and awe inspiring. In “One Spring, Gurs Camp” (above), the barbed wire depicts imprisonment and loneliness. The butterfly and the mountains in the background, however, suggest hope.
One of the two artists who collaborated on “One Spring”, 28 y.o. Kurt Low, was released and able to flee to Switzerland. The other, 37 y.o. Karl Bodek, was ultimately murdered at Auschwitz. Continue reading
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