Photo credit: Courtesy of the Author
“When I first started this project, I thought it would be a very depressing endeavor,” Barbara Mack, author of PORTRAITS IN BLACK AND WHITE: SURVIVORS AND WHAT THEY CARRY, told Hollywood on the Potomac. “We had moments of laughter and moments of crying. We had both.“
“What I found was although the stories were very sad, they were also filled with so many examples of kindness and goodness in the survivors and in the people who helped them survive,” said Mack. “I found the survivors to be charming and inspiring. I am a psychologist who retired as a psychologist and went into photography. I started in LA and after I had done some portraits, the Jewish Family Service came to me and asked me if I would do portraits of Holocaust survivors from their Café Europa group, which is a support group for Holocaust survivors in Los Angeles. It is a social group. It is an entertainment group. There are social workers who help them when they need to be helped, but it is also a place for them to relate to other people who have been through their experience. It is a wonderful place for them.”
“Originally, I asked them to bring an object because I thought that would make the portrait so much more interesting.” she noted. “As they were talking to me, while they were being photographed, I realized that this had to be a book. Eventually, that became the first book and it became the first exhibit. I said yes immediately because my great-grandmother actually was murdered in the Holocaust and her name was Tovah. My Jewish name is Tovah. I was named after her.”
The exhibit of Portraits in Black and White: Survivors and What They Carry was on display recently at the Russell Senate Rotunda in commemoration of the annual Days of Remembrance.
“Survivors and What They Carry captures the essence of these (20) remarkable people, many of whom pose with an object from their past. Cherished objects and family heirlooms — a faded photo, a Kiddush cup, a violin — add powerful and evocative layers to these stunning images. The black and white portraits are accompanied by fascinating life stories. When interviewed by the Jewish Journal during the show’s Los Angeles premiere in January, Mack said, ‘Not everybody brought objects, but for all those people who were carrying something, it made this exhibit different from most Holocaust survivor exhibits. Each time you look at it, you think, ‘Why is this here?’ It adds mystery to the pictures,” according to the release.
The exhibit is an example LAMOTH’s (Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust) mission to preserve important stories and continue to share historical lessons. “Many survivors have written their memoirs, but so many have not because it’s a huge undertaking. That their history can live on in the context of this exhibit is a very powerful thing,” said Executive Director Samara Hutman.
We were particularly taken by a photograph of a lady that carried a torn piece of cloth across her arm. “That was Sophie Hamburger,”Mack explained. “Sophie was in a death march from Auschwitz and she and two other girls were together. The three of them decided that they would rather risk being shot in the back for trying to escape the death march than to continue on with it. They together decided to escape. What they did is they couldn’t run. There was forest on either side of them. They couldn’t run, they were so weak, but the three of them walked into the forest and to their surprise, not one shot was fired.” Do you think that was intentional by the shooters that maybe sympathized with them? “Sophie said that the guards were so tired themselves that they didn’t even notice. The three of them survived in the forest after that.”
Sofie Hamburger
“In the picture, what she is holding is the very thin garment she was wearing when she escaped,” Mack explained. “What it was is it looked actually like it came down to her knees and it looked like a slip. There was no way it could keep her warm. That was all she had and she kept it all these years. She said what she did is she had cut off the bottom part because it was so dirty but she kept the top and she wanted that in her photo. If you see the photo, it is over her arm with her Auschwitz number showing. Each one had its own compelling part to it. They were really quite amazing stories and quite amazing people. I would people to remember those who died in the Holocaust. I would like them to know that can happen. Basically it is: ‘To my grandchildren and to your grandchildren, may they know history and make the world better.’ I guess that’s it.”
