graphic expression of internment: three photo albums from the united states holocaust memorial...

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8 | GRAPHIC EXPRESSION OF INTERNMENT photo albums of the ushmm collection Graphic Expression of Internment refers to the specific representation of shared graphic art and artifacts of the Holocaust. The graphic nature of the three photo albums/ scrapbooks addresses the planned or articulated language of design. The design process connotes editorial decisions made in the process of articulated planning in their planning and creation. By definition, graphic design is an art or profession of visual communication that skillfully combines images, words, and ideas to convey information to an audience. Graphic design can also be a form of personal expression that reflects the attitudes of the community for which the work is intended. This collection looks at the expressive nature of design in its ability to structure content, creating a greater inclusive narrative. Unlike a stack of collected photographs and album presumes a continued theme or progression. Un affected photo albums have no notation of content; there exists no context that identifies cohesiveness themes of known categories for inclusion. Often photo albums are a chronological placement of people, places, and events placed in rhythmical sequence directly ordered according to the prescribed timeline. Photo albums may contain prescribed descriptions, or identify people, places, and dates. Photo albums or scrapbooks have a different agenda. The photo albums in this collection have specific purpose and intent—to document and preserve the experience of place through the extended narrative of applied design. Organized albums imply careful attention to drawn similarities and the process of editing is crucial. The focused attention connotes a cohesive selection. One can imagine a vast subjective material, the critical methodology used for selection, or negation, delivers a finished cohesive album. The specific graphic attention expresses common visual themes such as documentation, preservation, dedication, and memorial; reinforced by the medium itself. There were many forms of designed objects and ephemera. Items created in harshly restrictive environments have different visual characteristics than objects in comparatively relaxed situations. The graphic works created in Jewish ghettos for example have a feeling of immediacy about them. I am repeatedly drawn to graphic works created by Jews during the Holocaust. Common forms of graphic communication include: maps, signage, camp insignias, newspapers and periodical, and documents of many forms. In rare instances, Jewish designers worked for the resistance creating forged Nazi documents for the direct survival of individuals. It is hard to imagine design to be so active in such a dire state of existence. Design commonly reflects cultural and social development, so to does design aptly capture the visual aesthetics of life in internment. These albums do not present us with ‘graphic’ images of death and destruction, pain and suffering, or darkness one typically associates with the Holocaust. The graphic attitudes in these three albums celebrate optimistic rehabilitation. There has been previous research offered of artwork created amidst the Holocaust, often focusing on children’s artwork, or clandestine subjective representation of experience and observations. Rarely historical research looks to analyze ‘designed’ artifacts from the Holocaust. My intentions are to illuminate and highlight such works, and to place them in the history of graphic design as important contributions to the expressive history of the medium. The objective nature of design better justly suits strict documentation of the Holocaust. However, the deeply personal experience of the Holocaust embeds the personality and circumstances of the individual and the collective experience of the community. PREFACE

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This design analysis looks to insert the graphic possibilities of a neglected medium of a specific time. Two of the three albums were created by individuals who had previously worked in the design field. Many Jewish artists were revoked of their craft by the Nazis who deem all works of Jews to be ‘degenerate,’ and culturally destructive to the upward popularization of nationalism.

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Page 1: Graphic Expression of Internment: Three Photo Albums from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

8 | GRAPH IC EXPRESSION OF I NTERNMENT

photo albums of the ushmm collection

Graphic Expression of Internment refers to the specific representation of shared graphic art and artifacts of the Holocaust. The graphic nature of the three photo albums/scrapbooks addresses the planned or articulated language of design. The design process connotes editorial decisions made in the process of articulated planning in their planning and creation. By definition, graphic design is an art or profession of visual communication that skillfully combines images, words, and ideas to convey information to an audience. Graphic design can also be a form of personal expression that reflects the attitudes of the community for which the work is intended. This collection looks at the expressive nature of design in its ability to structure content, creating a greater inclusive narrative. Unlike a stack of collected photographs and album presumes a continued theme or progression. Un affected photo albums have no notation of content; there exists no context that identifies cohesiveness themes of known categories for inclusion. Often photo albums are a chronological placement of people, places, and events placed in rhythmical sequence directly ordered according to the prescribed timeline. Photo albums may contain prescribed descriptions, or identify people, places, and dates. Photo albums or scrapbooks have a different agenda. The photo albums in this collection have specific purpose and intent—to document and preserve the experience of place through the extended narrative of applied design. Organized albums imply careful attention to drawn similarities and the process of editing is crucial. The focused attention connotes a cohesive selection. One can imagine a vast subjective material, the critical methodology used for selection, or negation, delivers a finished cohesive album. The specific graphic attention expresses common visual themes such as documentation, preservation, dedication, and memorial; reinforced by the medium itself.

There were many forms of designed objects and ephemera. Items created in harshly restrictive environments have different visual characteristics than objects in comparatively relaxed situations. The graphic works created in Jewish ghettos for example have a feeling of immediacy about them. I am repeatedly drawn to graphic works created by Jews during the Holocaust. Common forms of graphic communication include: maps, signage, camp insignias, newspapers and periodical, and documents of many forms. In rare instances, Jewish designers worked for the resistance creating forged Nazi documents for the direct survival of individuals. It is hard to imagine design to be so active in such a dire state of existence. Design commonly reflects cultural and social development, so to does design aptly capture the visual aesthetics of life in internment. These albums do not present us with ‘graphic’ images of death and destruction, pain and suffering, or darkness one typically associates with the Holocaust. The graphic attitudes in these three albums celebrate optimistic rehabilitation. There has been previous research offered of artwork created amidst the Holocaust, often focusing on children’s artwork, or clandestine subjective representation of experience and observations. Rarely historical research looks to analyze ‘designed’ artifacts from the Holocaust. My intentions are to illuminate and highlight such works, and to place them in the history of graphic design as important contributions to the expressive history of the medium. The objective nature of design better justly suits strict documentation of the Holocaust. However, the deeply personal experience of the Holocaust embeds the personality and circumstances of the individual and the collective experience of the community.

PREFAC E

Page 2: Graphic Expression of Internment: Three Photo Albums from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

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photo albums of the ushmm collection

This design analysis looks to insert the graphic possibilities of a neglected medium of a specific time. Two of the three albums were created by individuals who had previously worked in the design field. Many Jewish artists were revoked of their craft by the Nazis who deem all works of Jews to be ‘degenerate,’ and culturally destructive to the upward popularization of nationalism. The Prowsaw album was assembled by Peter Prosaw (born Pinkus Proshowsky) a graphic designer originally from Lodz Poland. Pinkus was a member of the Bauhaus studying under Walter Gropious before the war. Through his skill and training his design resembles contemporary design in the continuum of the Bauhaus and that of Soviet design. My initial intentions were to include designed objects that had previous been obscured by design historians. Many design histories leave out objectionable works created during WWII. Initially I saw a negation of anti-Semitic propaganda. Upon further analysis I realized an even greater discrepancy of design works by Jews. Through the Nazi regime all practicing Jewish artist were subjected to stifling restrictions and further demonized and persecuted. My further intentions are to document the works of Jews who were actively creating works with the greatest agenda, to survive. As some Jews were producing official works in internment camps and ghettos other were using design to register and document their experience and clandestine fate of their community. This is design with the highest standards, leaving us with observational remarks of the persecuted.

EDITORIAL VOICE

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photo albums of the ushmm collection

Looking at depictions of war through the eyes of the inflicted requires both caution and reflection. As viewers we are bearing witness second hand, once removed from inflicted suffering we must take with us careful observations and forgo preconceived judgements of victimization. Holocaust studies and representation must simultaneously identify the subtleties of historical reference, a known understanding of the time line of historical events, crossed with personal journey and representation of travails. Visual culture of the Holocaust entails a true displacement of cultural identity. Many secular Jewish artists lading up to and through their experience of World War II and the occupation of Nazi regime across Europe suffered tremendous effects of wandering and displacement. Visual culture represents a collected set of narrative devices, shared collective language from the greater Jewish Diaspora of internationally displaced Jews. Strong feelings of Nationalism effected this visual representation. The established history of the diaspora visually link shared and collective experience of anti-Semitism and cultural persecution.

OBSERVI NG WORK CREATED U N DER DISTRESS

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This thesis does not use the term internment lightly. Its proclivity renders an idea of contained freedoms. Internment camps established across the globe during World War II and their usage still today depict a strong urgency of communal fear. Internment camps in America relocated thousands of Japanese–Americans out of prejudicial fear. American internment camps were established for German–Americans; often mixing them in the same facilities with Japanese–Americans, as well as military POWs. In times of war and civil unrest, warring nations become uneasy at the prospect of the enemy within. During World War II, internment camps established in ‘friendly’ countries saw the danger if immigrant refugees. Assimilated Jews established in Australia for example, feared the influx of European Jewish refugees, seeing them as a threat towards their own stable and influential community, Jews that were able to immigrate to Australia were initially interned as their alien status shifted from ‘enemy aliens,’ to ‘friendly aliens.’ Resurgent attitudes of nationalism necessitated internment camps as a solution for the confinement of the ‘others,’ or ‘outsiders’. Native countrymen saw immigrant populations as dangerous for sympathetic revolution. In the case of this research, internment camps have privileges in difference from concentration camps, prison camps, work camps, and POW camps. This thesis designates DP camps and refugee camps to fall within this broadened usage of the term ‘internment.’ The Oxford English Dictionary (1989) gives the meaning as “The action of ‘interning,’ confinement within the limits of a country or place.” There is a common distinction between internment; confined usually for preventative reasons, and imprisonment which implicates criminal activity. The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. defines the term further as; a camp where non-combatants of a district are accommodated. The Nazi regime in Germany initially made distinctions; interning political prisoners and foreign nationals before the war 1933-1939; and after the war began in 1939, making dramatic inclusions for the anti-Semitic justifications of interning Jews through relocation and death through 1945. Internally most governments choose to use alternate terms for

internment such as resettlement camps or detention centers. Early usage of the term ghetto constituted self-internment like situations. Common European ghettos were Jewish Quarters designated for anti-Semitic segregation. Not until Nazi ghettos occupied and forcefully enacted the closure of ghettos did the tern garner such fear—imagining conditions of disparity and death. Whether medical quarantine, political, or social, internment camps are typical destinations for undesirables or the displaced. Displaced Persons after the war necessitated the use of common facilities offering social services to refugees of all distinctions. Jewish displaced person had unique and specific needs that largely depended on relief organizations for the rehabilitation of the European Jewish Diaspora. While DP camps were not forced per se, conditions were very unpleasant, specifically after Liberation where thousands of Jews died before organized relief could attend to their dire needs. Within the internment / DP system Jews could work towards their extended freedom. I use the classification of internment to associate all forms of suggested imprisonment, whether directed by force, or by need. After Liberation Jews were left with little options; housing shortages, destruction, scarcity of food, and rampant anti-Semitism left Jews without choice. While thousands of Jews initially returned to their place of origin after Liberation, many could not cope or were unprepared to return to a life of normalcy so soon after the wars end again made their way to DP camps that could offer help and relief from years of suffering.

ELEMENTS OF I NTERNMENT

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This abbreviated study aims to illuminate the potential of the graphic medium as an expressive form of expression in the context of Holocaust and Jewish studies. While there are many photographs that constitute portraiture for specific families and their rich Jewish lineage, few albums establish a documentary effort that is collective. What this project sets out to prove is that developing more fully our understanding of the Holocaust requires blending oral history with non-traditional forms of documentation. Gathered histories paired with the individual experience of a common place create a deeper knowledge of that place. Specific Holocaust testimonials infuse documentary art forms with a pre-history, offering the much-needed context in reconstructing stories of survival or destruction. Acknowledging and analyzing such pictographic and historical contexts is decisive in determining the extended fate of individuals’ stories of survival. The Friedler Album documents two DP camps directed by Moritz W. Friedler. The photo album, dated 1946-47, consists of pictures from St. Marien, which was located in the British Zone of Austria; and from Linz, located in the American Zone. The Prosaw Album represent both individual stories of survival, and rehabilitation services of the Düppel DP camp in Berlin Germany dated 1947. The album/scrapbook was designed and created by Peter Prosaw who had been a graphic designer before the war and a survivor of Auschwitz. The Peckham Album contains photographs, donated by the families from a refugee camp in Toulouse, dedicating the services of ‘the family Huisman’ before their immigration to Toronto Canada. The photo album was created and illustrated by seventeen-year-old Max Appelbaum. All this said, these albums fail to provide their viewers any kind back-story. Despite the fact that two of these albums derive from postwar DP camps, they fail to refer to either World War II or the inhabitants’ pre-camp history. Unlike this anthology, the viewer is permitted only a brief window onto the two or three years of rehabilitative conditioning. We must therefore rely on our pre-existing knowledge to lead us through the war, up to the point of Jewish liberation in 1945. This thesis does not intend to provide a full historic survey of artwork generated by Jews that either perished or survived the Holocaust as

orchestrated by the National Socialist regime. Nor does this collection aim to offer a definitive retrospective of the varied camps in which these albums were created. Its purpose is to highlight and illuminate works generated by Jews through an artistic gesture that transcends documentation, dedication, preservation; in short, these albums bear witness to atrocities of the Holocaust. These three albums represent resilience and survival; moreover, they invite the possibility of extending life beyond the time spent in these camps. But first a few words about the process of studying the Holocaust, a pursuit that requires an open mind and creative combination of resources. Art and artifacts from the Holocaust necessitate a cross- disciplinary study of documents and ephemeral traces of the past. Self-referential documents require checks and cross-checks, comparative analysis of dates, names and name changes, and articles of proven displacement of people across Europe. Looking into redundant and obscure translations are necessary to track the progress of or transgressions against of individuals, families, and communities lost in the devastation of the Holocaust. Each individual requires a hunt and gathering of ‘material’ witnesses that bear the historical timestamp to adequately create a continual narrative. Available resources vary from location to location, and person to person. Every bit of research together with each gathered database builds upon the previous findings, reports and historic solutions. These proposed albums are no exception. The visual culture of the Holocaust builds upon sensitivity to life and death, of survival and destruction. Our cultural conscience has previous tendencies towards images that are witnessed most often. Previous visual identification began with a cache of images generated, misrepresented and appropriated, twisted and obscured, by the propagandist strategies of the Nazis. The systematic destruction of European Jewry last beyond the physical destruction of Jews, casting a darkness that would endure for years, and in many instances over generations. Survivors of the Holocaust remain soured and in a persistent state of rehabilitation. This distance created a significant gap in both histories and documentation. The graphic language of design has dictated much of the tone, spirit and texture of cultural and social positioning throughout the history of modern times. The

I NTRODUCTION

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visual language established by designers, artists, and printmakers captures a clandestine timeline that visually corresponds to the spirit of the times in which they were set. While historically design has been secondary to literary culture, it nonetheless can act as a signpost, pointing to the specificity of place and attitudes of a given day or period of history. The graphic work depicted here is of no exception. The medium of design is used to convey a message to the masses, document time and place, sell ideas, and market ideologies. It also conveys personal conviction. Much documentation and research has previously depicted the strong hold of Nazi propaganda. Analysis of this material calls attention to the strength, power, and call for support en masse as well as its anti-Semitic context. The abundance of this material lies in part due to systematic disbursement of material through the office of public enlightenment and propaganda. The power and dissemination along with massive quantities of production has allowed these documents and ephemera to prevail. Cast another way, these objects and how they were designed would be forgotten by many generalists in terms of how . Many forms of creative production allow the stories of individuals under enforced systematic hardship and persecution to be told. These documents, created by Jews act to document their experience and justify their emotional response. Many documents created by Jews survive due to clandestine outcomes and responses to their efforts to share their stories; to hear their cries and offer proof of the devastation they witnessed. The isolated numbers of each artifact constitute a direct and qualitative depiction of the 6,000,000 Jews murdered by the Nazis. Clandestine stories involve isolated incidents that occurred, allowing hidden, smuggled, and stored items to emerge after the war was over. Witnesses and authors returned to claim their works. Creative works of art and design created directly after liberation in 1945 generated an atmosphere of reparation as well as a dire need to document immediately one’s experience as well as emotional healing devices. Many Jews would document their stories to possess their own survivals as a means of coping with the realization that their entire families had

been destroyed—In other words, these works ask both how and why. After limited testimonials, many would allow their painful experiences to escape, some never telling their story again. The effectiveness of Holocaust studies relies on a variety of media to develop an isolated story of an individual, family, or community. Collective resourcefulness requires a consistent and pervasive analysis and determination within every possible model of documentation and articulation of historical proof. The media at one’s disposal constitutes the possibilities of language barriers, statehood, missing and displaced documents, and the like. The need to use comparative and analytic data sets is clear. Some documents prove to be of greater value, while others offer very little return. Much of the gathered information requires a look at Nazi records; these records offer sadistic insight into otherwise unobtainable facts. To gather and articulate combined resources allows the greatest possibility for clarity in reconstructing stories of survival as well as stories of destruction. To establish the Jewish narrative of the Holocaust researchers have at their disposal a variety of document types. Common articles are photographs, diaries, journals, testimonials, legal and immigration documents, ephemera, oral histories, artifacts, and I argue, objects by design. The reconstruction of Europe and, more significantly, the Jews around the world left the Holocaust dormant for years, partly out of respect and appropriateness, and partly out of emotional and spiritual rehabilitation. The radically displaced surviving Jewish community sat Shiva in sorrowful mourning. Displacement was a reprieve from death and obliteration; however, the long-term consequences remain forever infused with the devastating annihilation of six million Jews. Retrieving history is a daunting assemblage of past and present, displacement of location, and obscured documentation. Contrasting analysis from oral histories, organizational tracing organizations, thesis, and discoveries, translation happens both linguistically and as symbolic gestures that permit a leap of faith to necessitate the contrasting potentially of conflicting resources. Understanding and developing histories of the Holocaust necessitates multiple resources acting together to create and manifest a semblance of the obscured

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narrative. Like a Talmudic scholar studying the oral history of Jewish law, multiple reference commentaries are set in contrast and alignment, while still open to discourse and interpretation. The main subject does not change, however, our interpretation adjusts to our experience and knowledge set. Each seemingly disparate piece continually adds greater depth to the knowledge base and therefore a developing repository that, ultimately, constitutes history.The three albums documented here offer a varied spectrum of observation and documentation. The Friedler album offers no editorial comments. Its design is simple. Other than the occasional identification text identifying location, the illustrations carry the weight of linking each workroom to the skill services in each workroom. The monotony of Jews sitting at workroom tables does not allude to their setting. Only the specificity of each silhouetted illustration lends a narrative form. The Friedler album extends images of Nazi work camps, while the purpose of the DP camp is oppositional to the Nazi concentration and death camps. Are we to subtly gain an editorial commentary on the actual feelings and proceedings of these refugees? The trained order of the Prosaw Album specifically identifies each moment and organizes sub-divisions that we see an overwhelming level of organization, that feels presumably forced. Again, we ask if this is to be interpreted as an extension of the visual narrative, and its effects on interpretation. This interpretation is reinforced by the entire collection, edited sets of images that we only get from entire photo albums. The effectiveness of the designed elements as a whole altered, edited, and manipulated albums makes us ask more of it. Un-designed albums can only be seen as random collections, whereas the importance the designer has also extends its message into something greater. The Peckham Album was created by Max Applebaum, who at the age of seventeen, lends a naïve and playful interpretation of him; moreover, his isolated community’s interaction with the camp director for whom which the album was created constitutes another dimension of this album’s documentary value. Similar to a working graphic novel, the illustrations break form, lending invaluable commentary to the photos provided and donated

by the various families in the refugee camp. In effect, the illustrations remove the need for translation. Although loaded with community asides, each renders a near perfect interpretation of the embedded photos. The combination was specific to the understanding of the director Jacob and his wife Judith. The playfulness is a selected narrative set created for the appreciation of a knowledgeable few. Only through removed translation do we truly understand the youthful wit, sense of humor, and play of this young artist. Graphic Expression of Internment illuminates the process of design as an important medium in the further analysis of Holocaust studies. The graphic attention given to the three photo albums selected in this study fully renders the articulated observations beyond that of a static photo album with a collection of placed photographs. There are many examples of photo albums collected and gathered by Jews before World War II. Many of the available volumes chronicle both family and community life before World War I through the beginning of the Nazi regime. As a community- and family-driven society, photo albums capture the spirit and lineage of multiple generations within various sectors of the Diaspora of European Jews. Community albums consisted of Yeshiva students and scholars, political and Zionist organizations, community welfare associations, and privileged society and families. With the growing popularity of photography, amateur and professional photographers alike documented and preserved the communal life of towns, cities, villages and urban metropolitan life from the Ukraine, Russia, Germany, France, Belgium, Poland, the Netherlands, the Balkan States, and the Mediterranean. And yet looking at depictions of war through the eyes of the inflicted requires both caution and reflection. As viewers, we are bearing witness second hand, once removed from inflicted suffering we must take with us careful observations and forgo preconceived judgments of victimization. Holocaust studies and related representations must simultaneously identify the subtleties of historical reference, a known understanding of the time line of historical events, crossed with personal journey and representation of travails. Much of the visual culture related to the Holocaust gestures toward a true displacement of cultural identity.

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Many secular Jewish artists leading up to and through their experience of World War II and occupation by the Nazi regime across Europe suffered tremendous effects of wandering and displacement. The surviving traces of visual culture offer a collected set of narrative devices, shared collective language from the greater Jewish Diaspora of internationally displaced Jews. Strong feelings of Nationalism effected this visual representation. The established history of the Diaspora visually link shared and collective experience of anti-Semitism and cultural persecution. This design analysis looks to insert the graphic possibilities of a neglected medium of a specific time. Individuals who had previously worked in the design field create the representations presented here. Many Jewish artists had been denied the right to practice their craft by the Nazis who deemed all work by Jews to be ‘degenerate’ and culturally destructive to the upward popularization of nationalism. This book illuminates three albums from the USHMM art and artifacts archive collection. Each album is a rare and precious collection of photos that richly document life in DP camps in Berlin and Austria, as well as the unique and historically obscure refugee camp in the southern French city of Toulouse. Like illuminated manuscripts, each album consists of a near complete collection of photos that document experience and activities of each unique experience. Each album includes graphic illustrations that furthermore contribute to a deeper story of experience. The artists and designers featured in these three collections were trained artists and designers. Pinkus Proshowsky, a graphic designer, assembled the Prosaw album originally from Lodz. Proshowsky was a member of the Bauhaus, where he studied under Walter Gropious before the war. Through his skill and training, Proshowskys design resembles contemporary design in the continuum of the Bauhaus and that of Soviet design.

My initial intention was to include designed objects that had previously been obscured by design historians. Many design histories leave out objectionable works created during WWII. Initially I saw a negation of anti-Semitic representation. Upon further analysis, I found an even greater discrepancy in design works by Jews. Under the Nazi regime, all practicing Jewish artists were subjected to stifling restrictions, demonized and persecuted. My intentions are also to document the works of Jews who created works with the largest agenda: to survive. As some Jews produced official works in internment camps and ghettos, others used design to register and document their experience and clandestine fate of their communities. This is design with the highest standards, leaving us with observational remarks of the persecuted. The Jewish religion had previously prohibited religious likeness and therefore prohibited the production of icons. The ability to capture family life became increasingly important and popular. Portraiture dominated the initial Jewish appreciation of the photographic medium. Influential Jews, which flourished in assimilated and secular practices, had a fondness for capturing the moment and activity outside daily routine. Images of family vacations and recreational time were the predominant imagery of these pictures. A wonderful and deep collection of isolated photos has survived the war. These precious images were saved, stored, and deemed vital in the continued importance and continuity of the family. Sores of clandestinely preserved images survived ghettos, internment camps, and even the killing centers of Auschwitz. Among the possessions with which many Jews relocated, cherished family photographs feature prominently amongst those items saved and cared for with high esteem. After Liberation, many of the internment and death camps contained a large number of preserved photos that had been hidden by inmates or Jewish councils, as well as Jewish ‘Sonderkommandos’ with the duty of sorting through processed inmates’ possessions.

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When intact, photo albums emotional and historic importance increases. The preciousness of a complete or near complete, album allows a greater narrative story to unfold. The prospect of a family collection of images, at times, can be used to complete a broken story. Clues to the unknown can emotionally reconnect survivors to the extreme loss of an entire family. A photo album, a determined collection of photos, can be organized chronologically by event, while portraiture of past generations records infancy to childhood or catalogues membership in a community or religious group. The photo archive of the USHMM consists of images in isolation, images gathered from found collections or sources; some are even fortunate enough to be contained in a complete album. Photo albums with their inherent collected structure as contained within a single bound volume offer an invaluable opportunity for producing narratives to accompany their images. Individual images, now paired with equally contained photos, can create a context to an extended narrative. This narrative may be planned or inadvertently assigned with the physicality of one coherent collection. When looking at a photo album the intention of the collection is often obscured. However, when one comes across an illuminated or graphically altered album, the greater intent often moves to the forefront, offering forth a more intelligible message than might otherwise be evident. With the graphically annotated album, certain historical details can be determined with great authority. Whether a professional designer or visual artist has crafted the album is not in question. The graphic nature of artifacts with purpose has an increased illumination through the designed or planned process. Certain elements can identify pattern, scale, and elements of repetition, sequential ordering, and rhythm. These common design elements structure the content allowing a complete interpretation of the similarities or differences from one photo to another, or from one page to next. Design elements that link pages do so visually as well, presumably, thematically. Pages with shared illustration often link the photographs to a common idea, process, table, or category of inclusion. Designed or altered photo albums consider the narrative string that links shared attributes to well defined categories of reference. Whether

graphic or illustrated, additional editorial elements unify the entire collection by defining the sequence for individual themes from one set of pages to another. The graphic expression used in the three collections in this volume vastly differs from collection to collection. I chose these particular albums for each one’s unique and varied approach to render a greater narrative understanding for each album—independently from one another. The graphic styles of each of the three albums vary greatly. In each album, the language extends the narrative to convey the intent of the artist or designer. Our understanding and interpretation of the Holocaust is often an interpretation seen through the perpetrators’ eyes. Some of the most notable images were created and disseminated through Nazi documentation, falsely chronicling the destruction of European Jews. Upon further analysis, the greater stories come not from Nazi destruction, but rather from stories of the victims’ survival. Common articles of study use a rich mixture of biography, testimonial, diary excerpts, and recorded archives. The clandestine articles of survival remain intact. To quote graphic artist Lawrence Weiner, “bits and pieces create a semblance of the whole.” Studying the artistic works of persecuted Jews lends a deeper story—a visual story. Photo albums created and collected before World War II, depict a rich family history. Images of entire families, gatherings, and generational documentation shift the focus from the family unit to the story of the individual that either survived or perished, as well as the extended networks of family members that were killed in the war. While photo albums are successful in documenting a family in its entirety, altered albums create a new rich context. An altered album has personal details embedded in its very selection of images. Articulated proportions begin to reveal a secondary narrative through the retraceable thoughts and story interpreted and disseminated by the creator. This collection of photo albums looks at the rehabilitation of community. The selected albums collect images of the Diaspora, a community of displaced persons reassembled, a community gathered.

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Design strategies attempt to re-contextualize and structure content to create a new or greater context. Editing content articulates the essence, and focuses the attention on the inter connectedness. These albums can offer an elaboration on the typical chronological family photo album, which generally orders and illuminates past generations, specific moments, and occasions offering only a glimpse of the actual timeline of events. Photo albums have the opportunity to carry family attitudes, encourage reflection, and offer documentation of genealogy. The history of the photograph, and its increasing popularity allowed less formal presentations and portraits. Family photo albums at the turn of the century became for the first time recreational. By the end of the 1900’s, the photographic medium evolved from scientific imaging to entertainment and artistic expression. These photos albums extend the familiar narrative of family by portraying the wholeness of the communities for which they were created. The Friedler Album captures the importance of DP camps in educating communities and preparing them for their lives in the aftermath of the devastation of the Holocaust. Rehabilitation of mind, body, and spirit was essential for the development and growth of the remaining community. Displaced Jews had many things to overcome and cast behind them. A DP camp facilitated the process of overcoming their not-so-distant past experiences. As Europe was recuperating from the war, borders were to be redrawn and political situations were constantly shifting, as these individuals vied for postwar compensation and assessment of blame. The purpose of a DP camp was to strengthen the confidence, while reallocating ones sense of place. With so many lives lost, the need to ‘go home,’ for many were neither desired or a potential option. Many displaced persons were awaiting systems to their identity and self worth. The political spectrum remained skeptical and divided as to the solution of return. The Nazis systematically gathered Jews from all over Europe in order to destroy them. Liberation forces could only accommodate a handful of requests for return. A new system had to be put into place to accommodate the welfare of entire dislocated communities. Initially after Liberation, many Jews returned home however they could, only to find

destruction and more anti-Semitism. Once home, a survivor still had the possibility of facing persecution and starvation, not to mention the acknowledgement that they were the last remnants of their families and communities. Once back in the village, town or county of origin, they faced many obstacles. Many returned to find their homes occupied or destroyed. Agencies, such as the international red cross and joint distribution committee, actively sought for people’s return, or repatriated, while legislative restriction made repatriation difficult. The extended application for visas and proper emigration papers required a tremendous effort. With their communities destroyed, many were left to rebuild a semblance of a life again, while still agonizing over the loss of family members, loss of property, loss of children, and loss of parents. Both the Friedler Album and the Prosaw Album chronicle the activities of communities during the first few weeks and years of rehabilitation. Men of the surviving Jewish councils reestablished their roles, which included funding social services, welfare programs, medical attention, food rationing, refuge for children, and work allocations. These councils were dependant on international reparation organizations, and .members coming from affected countries sought immediate retribution and allocations. At the turn of the century, secular and religious Jewish organizations offered the European community the prospect of either Zionism or Socialist unification. These political themes embedded the visual aesthetic of the Jewish community Zionism influenced visual themes with the glory of return to Jewish statehood. The Star of David and brilliant hues of blue and goldenrod with the optimistic promise of a guaranteed homeland. Socialist values unified people through the promise of a Jewish Russia and Eastern Europe. Socialism and the avant-garde aesthetic encouraged the unification of the people’s community en masse. Bold graphic use of color and imagery of the masses supported the strength ‘of the people.’ Highly developed aesthetics that could brightly illustrate communities of religious strength and conviction. The remaining proof of the survival of these photo albums directly confronts the Nazi agenda to destroy the Jews. The photo album graphically documents survival and

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the persistence of community. Both the Friedler and Prosaw albums depict the continuation of life—after the Holocaust depicting life in (DP) Displaced Persons camp after Liberation in 1945. By documenting the importance of life in the DP camps is to confirm the raw emotions of those surviving Nazi concentration camps, work camps, and death camps. Life for Jews immediately after Liberation remained difficult at best. While Jews recognized their freedom, life in DP camps were crowded, diseases such as typhoid plagued the camps. Food supplies were low in supply and high in demand by the large population of survivors at the conclusion of the war. In Germany, the entire population was under strict rationing, and food supplies in the camps were in great demand. Throughout the war, the Jewish councils organized life and welfare systems for prison camps and ghetto communities. Jewish councils worked to reestablish and organize the transition from prison camps to the prospect of returning to ones homeland. In the development of revealing Holocaust stories, a major contributing factor for consideration is the notion of location. Location of survivors directly contributed to their success, or their destruction. The first wave of the displacement of Jews came in 1933, when Adolf Hitler became Reich leader and Chancellor of Germany. A minority of concerned Jews left Germany for France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Czechoslovakia, those with connection outside Europe immigrated to America, England and Palestine. In 1939, when war broke out an estimated 110,00 German Jewish refugees were spread across Europe.1

Again, the goal of this research is to illuminate the contents and the importance of the graphic medium while allowing the contents to present its self with room for interpretation. With this, I ask that further questions arise that can be expounded on. This is the medium of Holocaust studies—question, counter question. While each of the three albums illuminate similar themes of the Holocaust such as: remembrance, bearing witness, dedication, memorial, and renewal, they each represent experience in diverse manifestations. Each album produced for specific communities documents an optimist view, defiant of the experience of camp life. Unlike clandestine works documenting hardship or perseverance, these albums provide insightful awareness to the personalized characteristic in each ‘internment’ camp.

1  Gutman, 238.

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Beyond the historical analysis of the Holocaust lie millions of narratives in isolation, as the collective hole (sic) began to return to normalcy after World War II, initial Holocaust Studies began to focus on the reasoning and outcomes of the devastating effects inflicted by the Nazi regime on Jews across Europe. Documentation projects established by the UNRRA and ORT allowed Nazi documents to be returned to Jews, enabling rehabilitation and repatriatism. Articulated narrative histories began to reclaim a community forever lost. These structured narratives are important in establishing dates and events as base “set points” of reference. Using these set points, researchers can track and comparatively analyze locations with those events and those who survived, with those who perished. Strict legal sanctions of Jews began in Germany after the Nuremberg Racial Laws in 1935. Jews were legally removed from most areas of public life. Leading up to Kristallnacht, ‘Night of broken glass,’ in 1938, Jews were allowed to practice their trade in isolation amongst themselves. This too applied to Jewish artists practicing in the Reich, Jewish artists were initially seen as political opponents; similar to communists, socialists, and other anti-Nazis. The work of prominent Jewish artists was seen as un-German in the sanctioned nationalist form. Jewish artists at the time had been heavily influenced by expressionist and styles associated with Bolshevism and Russian art communities. This style of work officially declared by the Nazi regime as ‘degenerate art’. Only Nazi approved works of art was to be supported by the regime, anything deemed inappropriate was declared illegal and punishable for its creation, as the war developed, so too the severity for Jewish artists. Once in power the Nazi regime was quick to condemn ‘modern art.’ Art works depicting Jews was considered and deemed ‘inferior,’ ‘evil’ and ‘degenerate,’ subsequently Jews were banned from both art museums and art schools across Germany. 1

In the concentration camp system, the creation of artwork was also forbidden, and if caught punishable and even immediate death. However, there were exceptions of German soldiers and SS military officers that often conscripted Jewish artists for work. Works deemed as German approved Jewish artist often had the ability to

leverage their work, translating into special treatment and survival. Other artistic services were also needed in work camps and ghettos. Jewish councils who attended to the daily organization used designers and artists to create signage, published material, ration coupons, and in some instances currency. This work was not only employable but also conscripted as necessity by German and Nazi directors. This system allowed for the bargaining of materials, often using the left over materials for the creation of clandestine personal works, further documenting ghetto life, or in some cases advancing resistance. Regardless of the work created, artists of the Holocaust created works under extreme conditions. Sadly, similar to an art movement, artwork of the Holocaust would commonly reflect similar motifs, attitudes, and styles of representation with a subject matter that portrayed the daily horrors presented to them all. Artists in strict concentration camps, work camps, POW camps, and internment camps the prisoners were unable to rely on former values or perceptions. The power of physical work, pain and fear, and the will to survive allowed the creation of work to serve three functions. In Art of the Holocaust Janet Blatter identifies these three functions as 1. a link to ones former identity, 2. a mental bridge to the prospect of a future 3. a way to document their experience.2 For displaced persons in internment camps it was also a method of rehabilitation and service, the transcendence of creating works that would now extend the experience and document the process if survival and renewal. Scholars argue to the official dates of inclusion to consider art of the Holocaust, most place these creation dates between 1939-1945. I argue in the works generated in this study to include works of DP camps from 1945 to 1950, when final displacement camps were no longer needed. Holocaust scholar Janet Blatter states the historic conditions of the Holocaust directly affected the works generated in terms of acquiring materials, creative intentions, and subject matter.3 While I do not disagree, I feel the inclusion of artwork generated in DP camps follows her framework, and more importantly mirrors the conditions and attitudes as a continuation of internment. While the direct conditions may be more lenient, the camp lifestyle still embedded in

HOLOCAUST ART 1 Blatter, 23. 2 Ibid., 24. 3 Ibid., 21.

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many displaced Jews. In the book Art of the Holocaust, Janet Blatter favorably argues that highly artistic creations and historical documents reflect their subject matter, what the artists reveal about themselves, as well as the conditions under which they worked.4 Some critics still argue the ‘documentary validity’ of highly subjective artistic works, citing the potential of emotional and stylistic distortion. Here again I make the argument in favor of these three designers and artists in this collection. The Friedler Collection, Peter Prosaw, and Max Appelbaum use artistic methodology in the creation and editing of these albums creating a prescribed narrative that illuminates their experience, after the war in mental and physical rehabilitation. The work of Max Appelbaum directly reflects his isolated experience in southern France. The three albums reflect a widened range of current European art influences leading up to the war. The Freidler Collection contains volkish (of the people), attitudes in the representation of camp activities outside the Holocaust experience. There is a contrast of elements between hand rendered typography, photographic placement, and inclusion of contemporary symbols of the ‘Motoring School.’ Peter Prosaw’s lightly articulate and stylized rendering identifies his previous education. His work echoes Bauhaus, Avant-garde, and Russian Constructivists design themes supported by the previous Weimar Republic and all of Europe. The illustrations of Max Appelbaum reflect abstract and expressionist themes favored in his homeland of the Netherlands. At his juvenile age one might identify his work as naïve, hover his renderings and creation of the initial map, graphically represent Dutch geometric constructed abstraction. Jewish artists in concentration and internment camps had the most difficulty in both obtaining materials and the prospect of their creations making it beyond camp perimeters. Similar to transit camps during the war, DP camps were far more lenient and even fostered the creation of rehabilitative artwork. In refugee camps similar to Toulouse, international relief agencies such as the international red cross, JDC, and UGIF among other non-Jewish support agencies were able to send art materials. In refugee camps and some concentration camps during

the war, regulations allowed support and supplemental packages, even mail was exchanged. Refugee and transit camps allowed the interaction of prisoners allowing materials and artists the ability to share their works and generate portraits of fellow inmates. These advantages all created a positive attitude for the creation of art. The tighter the restriction, such as death camps, there exists no forms of remaining art work; there simply was not enough time, as the circumstances were unworldly. In the refugee camp in Toulouse, young Max would have the ability with Dutch, Belgian, and French relief organizations to get art materials such as paint and paper for his album. The unknown French artist of the Friedler album and Mr. Prosaw had the greatest availability—food rations would have been harder to come by. Art material were supplied to the entirety of the camp, they were meant to be shared and encouraged as entertainment and rehabilitative activities to pass the time, as well as materials for the educational workshops supported by the UNRRA and ORT. The situation in the DP camps in Berlin and Austria, as well as the openness of the refugee camp in Toulouse ensured the works to survive and directly correlates between the medium, brilliance of color, and materials of use for these rare and precious documents and expressions of internment. Janet Blatter accounts for the need for artists to create during such a horrific and life threatening situation. A complete audit of Holocaust material would indicate that art of the Holocaust was extremely varied. The variety represents when and where works were created. To quote Janet Blatter in Art of the Holocaust, “The Holocaust did not nurture any particular style because, in the very act of creating, the artists were refusing to acknowledge its terrible power.”5 Blatter’s research continues and states that, post-war works of art more closely resemble stereotypes of war, offering grotesque exaggeration drawn from dramatic memory. She also states that artists needed to put a distance between themselves and their circumstances. Peter Prosaw, and Max Appelbaum each have an essence of detachment, but each uses the language of design, their artistic medium, to chronicle events of place as they interpret it. The iconography of each of these albums denies us the typical war imagery or stereotypes of the war.

4 Blatter, 22 5 Ibid., 34.

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With the exception that we know the dates, places, and artists responsible for their creations these works offer us very little that they were victims of the Holocaust. The artists capture these places in their glory and seldom depict their awareness of the horrors behind the scenes. These artists drew their personal testimony of their direct circumstances, offering little reflective commentary or editorial commentary of their past situations; instead care to iterate the daily events, large and small. The Friedler Collection gives no visual detail to the displacement of their fellow Jews. Only scant symbols gesture the past effects of the Nazis. The unknown artist includes a likeness of the Star of David armband on a yellow field that Jews had previously been required to wear. Peter Prosaw organizes each page according to offices and events. Only one mentioning, “A Jew meets in Berlin an SS man, the murder of his family.” Max Appelbaum also depicts a singular tank; only his direct reference and label suggest it is the size of the women also portrayed on the page. There is sardonic humor, or dead pan plainness that shows their horror with a slightness of humor, this ultimately shows acts of defiance and resistance to their experience inflicted upon them. Miriam Novitch, Director of the holocaust museum at kibbutz lochanei haghettabt in Israel refers to all Holocaust art as “Spiritual resistance.” Artists recorded what they saw for posterity, so that future generations would know what happened.6

The survival of Holocaust works of art is a complex study of provenance. Many works were hidden in remote locations; inside walls, buried in containers, left with neighbors, or smuggled out by relief efforts. Both the Friedler album and Prosaw album do not need to suffer this fate. Both albums were equally created after Liberation before immigration; they had all the advantages of time, which many internment works of art did not. They still serve a vital record of DP camps and the obstacles they had to overcome. The uniqueness of the Peckham album is attributed to its early date of 1942. Up to this point camps operated by the French Vichy government offered a comparatively lenient atmosphere. Other objects from the similar area in southern France were presented to rescue workers from internationally funded organizations which allowed them to operate there. These agencies also supplied paper, paints,

pencils, and other materials. Artists in turn supplied aid workers with works of art in trade. In Art of the Holocaust, Sybil Milton states in her section titled “The legacy of Holocaust Art,” that “ local contacts, gifts, chance, and bribery saved the art of the Vichy camps from 1939-1942; almost nothing survived from the period after July 1942, when mass deportations to the east commenced.”7 This information suggests the history that directly followed the circumstances presented to Max Appelbaum dated 1942. The oral history provides us with information reinforcing by Max’s illustration. The camp director Jacob Huisman for whom the album is created, and his wife Judith along with their son Michele, were able to immigrate to Toronto Canada in April of 1942. This example indicates the importance of blending multiple Holocaust resources; the first being the artifact, and the second the oral history produced by the donor’s uncle who survived with his parents. Had the family Huisman stayed much longer in France, they and the collection may have been lost. The oral history continues where Max Applebaum’s artwork left off. Through this testimony do we learn that Max and his parents also pictured in the album survived. Without much detail, Max returned to Holland after the war—this is left for another story. The process of events and the study of design artifacts, along with artistic expression can shed meaningful light upon subsequent stories of survival, or question the results of all the other families in the photographs of this album.

6 Blatter, 30. 7 Milton, 38.

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After Nazi defeat and Liberation in 1945, millions if displaced persons wandered through devastated Europe. Approximately 7 million to 9 million were uprooted by the war. The end of 1945 would repatriate 6 million to their former national states. Of the remaining 1.5 million approximately 250,000 survivors were Jewish; of this population 200,00 had been liberated from Nazi concentration camps, extermination caps, or rescued from death marches across the former Reich. Heim Genizi writes that, “Jewish survivors of concentration camps were wrecked people physically and mentally.”1

The state of DP camps at the end of the war through the fall of 1945 continued to be fatal for survivors; nutrition, sanitary conditions, and camp accommodations were poor, even poorer still for Jewish survivors as they were exposed to humiliation and anti-Semitic attacks from non-Jews. When the war ended, Nazi concentration camps were liberated by Russian, British, and American armed forces. Most of the Jewish DP camps were in the British Zone in northern Austria and the American Zone consisting of Berlin in the south. In the summer of 1945, the Harrison Commission appointed by Harry S. Truman improved living conditions in the American Zone in comparison to Liberation. Bergen Belsen, a former Nazi concentration camp was in was considered the British Zone would not see dramatic improvements for months. The majority of the Jewish survivors were not prepared to return to their former life, especially in anti-Semitic Eastern Europe. Upon return, Jews face retribution, deprivation, or continued pogroms of annihilation. At the time of Liberation, the majority of Jews found in Nazi camps were at the end of their strength, malnourished, diseased, and in shock. Israel Gutman states, “At the end of 1946 the number of Jewish DPs was estimated at 250,000, of whom 185,000 were in Germany, 45,000 in Austria, and 20,000 in Italy.”2 These DPs consisted mostly of Polish Jews. Many of western European Jews were able to return to their countries of origin.

Relief organizations formerly working in Spain shifted their emphasis on the DP camps of Europe. Agencies such as the american jewish joint distribution committee; the joint; (JDC); or (AJDC); and the united nations relief and rehabilitation administration (UNRRA), poised themselves to provide basic necessities of life and act as principally supervisory agencies to all non-governmental relief organizations. An estimated forecast for quick repatriation of Jewish DPs was mired in political and national litigation and ongoing debate. The supreme headquarters of the allied expeditionary forces in europe (SHAEF) would be responsible for the provisions of housing, food, clothing, and medical supplies; and the UNRRA would provide recreational facilities, health and welfare services, and other supplementary functions.3 Other agencies such as the international red cross societies of France, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Sweden were crucial to the implementation of social services. The immediate goal of all, although of differing opinions, was the immigration and repatriation of the interned. Initial refugee problems in Germany, Austria, and Italy differed greatly from nation to nation. The initial 7 million DPs were; Russian POWs, and Slavic laborers, as well as Lithuanians, Latvians, Ukrainians, and Poles fleeing the Russian advances; seeking refuge in both British and American Zones. Political pressures would limit the support and need of this group by arranging for them to go home with concessions by the Russians. The Jewish population would remain with serious complications and a great amount of bargaining ahead of them. The work of Jewish agencies is separate from non-Jewish agencies as the immediate sensitive difference was the character of Jewish DPs.

1  Genizi, 28. 2  Gutman, 377. 3  Genizi, 19.

DISPLAC ED PERSONS (DP)  CAmPS

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Another agency that promised well-defined services for Jews was the organization for rehabilitation and training (ORT) The initial ORT director in Germany Louis J. Walinsky stated, the objectives of the Program of the World ORT Union, in brief, are to give vocational training to some 12,00 Jewish DPs in the year 1947.1 The ORT instructively taught 19 different types of skills in 42 separate training installations with 230 different courses in 38 subjects.2 Between 1946-1947 the instructors were themselves DPs; this factor led to the huge success and self-sustaining organizational methodology. The ORT instilled the appreciation; dignity, and recognition of work. It vastly restored morale, making them self-supportive thus improving their immigration opportunities. In 1947, the central committee, the jewish agency, and ‘the joint’ set up an autonomous educational system.3 Under great organizational difficulties, an elaborate school system was established. In one years time the system complemented itself creating an active rehabilitating methodology that allowed the community to thrive. The educational programming consisted of agricultural training; nursery school; elementary schools; religious schools for girls; and Talmudic academies, or Yeshivas for boys; it also established Zionist youth organizations. The agricultural initiatives prepared youths for immigration eligibility to Palestine. Many of these organizations, established by the ORT, would thrive and further be used as inspirational models in the upcoming establishment of the State of Israel. The ORT was also crucial in establishing newspapers and documentation services. The highly developed political sense of the DPs found its expression by publishing more than seventy newspapers printed in Hebrew and Yiddish. Again, these newspapers would carry the Zionist inspiration and accelerate towards the future of Israel.

The processing and organization of DPs proved a long drawn out and politically conservative process of international checks and balances. American immigration policy set tight restrictions and lobbied intently for resettlement rather than immigration. American Jews in the JDC, however empathetic favored resettlement within European countries rather than Jewish DPs immigration to the United States. the dp act of 1945 required advanced social planning including assurances for housing and skilled employment for economic stability.4 The long disheartening process of immigration often took a minimum of eight to nine months. The internment caused restlessness and the continuation of stress amongst the surviving community. The success of the ORT training and rehabilitation programs prepared survivors with emotional and professional strength; a strength that had dissipated through years of terror. This strength positioned Jews for their direct immigration—primarily to Palestine. Initial reluctance by the British government, which controlled Palestine until its conversion to Israel, gave way to American Jewish interest, which envisioned Palestine as the best possible solution to the Jewish immigration problem. The self-sustaining directedness of the ORT created the atmosphere for powerful success. Zionist organizations also saw this as an important movement towards a potential statehood for Jews. Commemoration and documentation projects, initially established by the ORT, created methods to bring Nazi criminals to trial by collecting documentary materials of DPs. These early documents, which still used today, were the earliest forms of Holocaust studies. Their fruitful efforts created the nuremberg trials of nazi war criminals in 1945-1946, and subsequent trials of conspirators through 1949. The DP chapter; with the organization and development of the UNRRA, ORT, and a multitude of independent relief organizations, in effect created the State of Israel in 1948. The last of the DPs gloriously immigrated to Israel in 1950.

TH E ORGAN IZATION FOR REHABI LITATION AN D TRAI N I NG ORGAN IZATION (ORT )

4 Genizi, 32. 5 Ibid., 33. 6 Gutman, 383. 7 Genizi, 114.

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The research of art and artifacts reveals a complex and nuanced archive of documentation. While some collections offer a plethora of documentation, others seemingly exist among themselves. Collections of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum consist of donor files. These documents offer a greater understanding and development of a rich collected narrative. Donor files may contain correspondence to the genealogical history offering an in-depth study. Many documents reference subsequent searchable contents revealing a family history that accounts for survivors as well as victims of the Holocaust. The three collections in this volume: Friedler, Prosaw, and the Peckham offer commentaries and historical references to each of the donor families collected experience. Each of these studies reveal an in-depth history of the collection and offer even further investigations for future development.

ART AN D ARTI FACTS OF TH E USHMM

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Text and Research by

JOH N P. CORRIGAN

Published independently in association with The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is America’s national institution for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust history, and serves as this country’s memorial to the millions of people murdered during the Holocaust. The Holocaust was the state-sponsored, systematic persecution and annihilation of European Jewry by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945. Jews were the primary victims—six million were murdered; Gypsies, the handicapped, and Poles were also targeted for destruction or decimation for racial, ethnic, or national reasons. Millions more, including homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Soviet prisoners of war, and political dissidents, also suffered grievous oppression and death under Nazi tyranny. The Museum’s primary mission is to advance ad disseminate knowledge about this unprecedented tragedy; to preserve the memory of those who suffered; and to encourage its visitors to reflect upon the moral and spiritual questions raised by the events of the Holocaust as well as their own responsibilities as citizens of a democracy.

100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SWWashington, D.C.20024-2126

www.ushmm.org

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Janet Blatter and Sybil Milton, Art of the Holocaust. The Rutledge Press, New York, New York, 1981.

Henry Friedler, Historical Introduction. [12-19]

Janet Blatter, Art From the Whirlwind. [20-35]

Sybil Milton, The Legacy of Holocaust Art. [36-43]

Heim Genizi, America’s Fair Share: The Admission and Resettlement of Displaced Persons, 1945-1950. Wayne State University Press, Detroit, MI. 1993.

The DP Problem in Germany and Austria, 1945–1947. [16-27]

UNRRA and the Voluntary Agencies in Germany, 1945–1947. [28-36]

The Displaced Persons Commission and the Resettlement of DPs 1948–1950. [114-127]

Israel Gutman, editor in chief, Encyclopedia of the Holocaust. Macmillan Publishing Company, New York. Volume I, II, III, IV. 1990.

“Jewish Displaced Persons.” [377-389]

“France: General Survey; –The Jews and the Holocaust; –Jewish Responses to Persecution.” [505-519]

“Joint Distribution Committee (JDC).” [752-755]

“Refugees, 1939-1945.” [1234-1240]

SELECTED BI BLIOGRAPHY

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Jeremy Aynsley, Graphic Design in Germany 1890-1945. University of California Press, 2000.

Robert E. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg. Gustan Muhler Gilbert, 1975. 1983.

Jeffrey Herf, The Jewish Enemy, Nazi Propaganda During World War II and the Holocaust. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2006.

David Welch, The Third Reich: Politics and Propaganda. Routledge, London, 1993.

Steven Heller, The Swastika: Symbol Beyond Redemption? Allsworth Press, 2000.

Richard Hollis, Graphic Design, A Concise History. Thames and Hudson, 1994.

Roxane Jubert, Typography and Graphic Design. Flammarion, Paris, 2006.

Steven Luckert, The Art and Politics of Arthur Szyk. USHMM, Washington D.C. 2002.

Philip B. Meggs, A History of Graphic Design. Second Edition. Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1992.

Hidden History of the Kovno Ghetto, Exhibition Catalogue. United States Holocaust Memorial, Washington D.C., 1997.

Daring to Resist, Jewish Defiance in the Holocaust. Exhibition Catalogue, Museum of Jewish Heritage–A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. New York, NY, 2007.

Barbie Zelizer, Edited by. Visual Culture and the Holocaust. Rutgers University Press, 2001.

reference material