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My
grandfather came from Radom,
Poland. He was
the only one in his family to
immigrate to the United States. A large
family remained behind only to
perish in the Holocaust. While
developing a website
for those researching their Jewish
heritage from Radom, I obtained a
film of the former Jewish
community.
It was
a homemade film dating back to
1937, done on the occasion of
two family weddings. It
captured a cross-section of the
Jewish community. Very
traditionally garbed men were filmed
as well as many far more secular in
appearance, probably not much
different than my family then in the
United States. It represents a happy
time, everyone is waving at the
camera and holding their children
up. Little could they have
imagined the horrors that would
confront the community just five
years later when most of those
filmed died in the Holocaust.
I took
about 75 stills from the film and
posted them on the
website. Juxtaposed next
to each other, I was struck with the
way they captured the community in a
moment in time and decided to paint
the community via this film.
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Because
I wanted the feeling of snapshots I
decided to keep my paintings to a
small size of 12" x 12".
The paintings are done on wood panels
and are painted in the style of a
pinhole camera with muted
colors and a slightly shaded border
around the edges. Hence the
name, "A Hole in Time". I wanted
to provide a glimpse of what life
looked like in the Jewish community of
that time and the diversity within
this community.
Soon
after I began this series I connected
with a woman who lives in my community
who is a survivor of Radom. The
war broke out when she was 15 so her
memories are those of a school
girl. Now in her late 90s she
shared her recollections with me of
the once vibrant Radom Jewish
community that this series seeks to
capture. She
also shared with me her family photos
from before the war and during the
time of the ghetto.
They had been hidden in her
brother's and her husband's shoes
throughout the camps. In April
2011 we traveled to Radom for
the opening of an exhibition of my
artwork and her photos and story at
the Resursa
Obywatelska, the Arts
and Culture Center.
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