Day 5

I liked going to the Jewish Community Center, and I was very happy to be able to sign up for their newsletter.  I plan on emailing them to see if any of the survivors would be willing to exchange emails for a bit, not just for my thesis report, but just for the opportunity to speak to a survivor one on one.  I loved Olga’s story of the survivor who did not have her Bat Mitzvah because she was imprisoned at the time finally having it so many years later.  I would have loved to see something like that for myself.  I also got a bit of respect for President Duda knowing that despite his law, he is still willing to speak to the Jewish to get their prespective.  I would have liked it if Jonathan would have been able to go into more detail over what they discussed, but given that it was a private session (and that we were a bit late and he had other things to attend to,) I understand why he didn’t.

I liked a lot of what I saw at the Museum of Contemporary Art.  Some of it I looked at and thought “I could do this,” like take pictures of every day objects.  But others I could not do.  I especially liked the pieces connected to the Holocaust, like W. Stelmachiwicz’s paintings of Olympic athletes with paint splattered over their image.  These weren’t just any Olympians, according to the information hanging next to the paintings, they were the athletes who competed in the 1938 games, and the paint over them signified Stelmachiwicz’s disgust with the Nazi regime and the crimes they committed.  I also liked Gregory Klaman’s piece modeled after the infamous “Arbeit Macht Frei” gate, only his says “Kvnst Macht Frei,” or “Art Makes You Free.”  Obviously, work did not make the prisoners of Auschwitz free, and to this particular artist, art did not set them free.  I would not necessarily call this a critique, more of an observation, but as I stated in my previous blogpost, the ‘B’ in Arbeit was deliberately put in upside down as a way for the prisoners to subtly defy the SS guards.  There were no letters that were upside down in Klaman’s sign, but then there were no letters that they could flip in a subtle way.

There were a few pieces that I found disturbing, and I mean that in a good way.  The man/raven figure that spoke every so often will give me nightmares, I am sure, and the sounds coming form Przemslaw Jasielski’s Object were very unnerving.  Even though my thought was a pendulum from a clock, the sounds varied in volume and tone, and I found it a bit creepy.  There was also the printer/camera with al the printed pictures scattered around.  I did not realize that it would take my picture as I took a picture of it.

This entire trip was an experience, one that I will be forever grateful for and glad I participated in.  I saw and learned so much, met some great people, and have gained a new prespective on several different aspects.