So far, we've seen been learning about musical and written literature reactions to the Holocaust. None could give a clearer picture of their experience than paintings. Paintings show a combination of what a person saw and what a person felt.
We walk into the classroom where huge posters lay on separate collections of desks. They are the works of Samuel Bak, a child trapped in a polish Jewish ghetto around 1942. Here is few of what we saw:
Sounds of Silence: A string quartet is camoflauged in a mess in an open field. Each person in the quartet played a different role in the Holocaust (German soldier and Jewish prisoner). Everyone's instrument had no strings, showing that absolutely nobody had a voice in this war.
Family Tree: A tree grows from a crematorium with Jewish stars for leaves. But unlike most trees who look strong, this one looks weak. The message from this painting was that the Holocaust destroyed Jewish families. Different roles in their families had been killed off.
He has another picture, Broken Strings, in which two people are playing some instrument which, by their hand placement ought to be a violin I think. However, the bows for both the man and the woman are branches of a tree with leaves attached. The two are separated by a large cello looking instrument that is broken.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if this picture has a lot of the same meaning as the one you saw.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/facinghistory/4251608912/in/set-72157623216052672/
Hmmm. I just realized the flickr account is called Facing History. Is this from your school or your community?