Saturday 14 May 2011

KELVINGROVE: MIXED MEDIA BOXES ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST

This is part of an extensive exhibit about Jews who arrived in Glasgow in the early and mid-twentieth century, fleeing persecution of different forms in different parts of Europe. The exhibit is contained in a section on the upper floor entitled "Conflict and Consequence".

Asked in 1990 by a distant relative to help compile a family tree, I found the task impossible, as so many family members had disappeared in the Holocaust.

Instead, I spent the next five years researching and making Holocaust artworks in memory of the millions who perished.

Testimony by Myer Lacome, artist 



Arbeit Macht Frei (1996)
Myer Lacome, Mixed media box

“Arbeit Macht Frei” – work leads to freedom – were the deceptive words on the main gate at Auschwitz Camp. Auschwitz, near Krakow in Poland, was the largest concentration camp and killing complex. 



The Burning of the Books, Germany, 10 May 1933 (1999)
Myer Lacome, Mixed media box

In 1933 the Nazis publicly burnt books by those Jewish and non-Jewish authors they disapproved of. Jews were forced out of their jobs. Some academics, artists and writers were able to flee. 



Kristallnacht, Germany, 9 November 1938 (1998)
Myer Lacome, Mixed media box

The night of broken glass – Kristallnacht. During this terrifying Nazi anti-Jewish pogrom – organised massacre – 267 synagogues, 1,000 prayer halls and 7,500 businesses were destroyed. Ninety-one Jews were killed and 26,000 arrested.

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