PROMPT: “To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.” -Elie Wiesel
Why is it important to remember the Holocaust? How can remembrance shape our understanding of the past and influence our future?
Artist Statement
This artwork grapples with the Holocaust, the systematic state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. My inspiration stems from the vital need to ensure this horrific event is never forgotten and stories of the silenced survivors are never forgotten. The person you see in the art piece with duck tape over their mouth symbolizes how victims were often silenced. Remembering the Holocaust honors the victims and forces us to confront the dangers of unchecked hatred and intolerance. Why remember? Because the past informs the present. Studying the Holocaust allows us to recognized warning signs of genocide and human rights abuses, empowering us to act against injustice and build a more better future. Remembrance shapes our understanding, guiding us toward a world where such atrocities are unthinkable. The Holocaust’s lessons are stark and enduring: the fragility of human rights, the peril of indifference, and the critical importance of confronting discrimination. These lessons remain tragically relevant in our world where human rights violations, ethnic conflicts, and extremist ideologies persist. By learning from the past, we can strive towards a future free from such horrors. This is a call to action not a suggestion.
Artist Statement
My piece was inspired by a combination of events and artwork. The hands reaching into the chest are inspired by David Altmejd’s sculpture The Healers, and David D’angers’s sculpture Sorrow inspires the face. The event that inspired this work was Germany forcing Jews to wear the stars because it was one of the first physical representations of their separation in parts of society. I made this piece to represent the dehumanizing Jews went through during the Holocaust. The man in the drawing is having his heart and soul ripped from him, and he has a yellow Star of David badge covering the hole in his chest, representing how the Jews had everything taken from them and were treated as inhuman because of their religion. I left the figure’s eyes blank because although I wanted to show as much emotion on his face as possible, I didn’t want him to look like anyone in particular. The man isn’t a real person but a representation of an entire people who were forced into labor, imprisoned, and killed in ways that no one should ever have to endure. He represents their memory and why the Holocaust should never be forgotten or repeated.
Artist Statement
It’s important to never forget the horrors that happened to millions of innocent people during the Holocaust. Forgetting the Holocaust is a great disrespect to the millions who lost their lives or to those who lost their loved ones. The inspiration of my art project was the concentration camp Ravensbruck. I chose to do this art piece of Ravensbruck because as soon as I started looking into it for a school project, I could immediately tell all the horrors and experiments that happened at that camp. What I want people to take out and focus on most about this art piece is how the rabbit in the middle represents how innocent Hitler made the concentration camps out to be but the blood and the scissors stabbing the rabbit show the horrors and experiments that happened behind the walls of not only this camp, but all the other concentration and death camps. The rabbit also conveys the Ravensbruck rabbits, who were also a big part in Ravensbruck during the Holocaust because they were the ones who were experimented on and who tried to help all the injured in the camp.
