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"THE
IMAGINATION OF REMEMBRANCE: The Third International
Conference on the Holocaust & Education: Quotes are by Segan unless noted
otherwise; footnotes & an appendix follow the text.
Akiva Kenneth Segan (ne Kenneth Ralph
Segan) was born in New York City, 1950, attending N.Y.C. public schools.
While religious observance was minimal in a home with anti-Vietnam war
and pro-civil rights sympathies (during the years of race-hate inspired
murders and demonstrations in the American South) he attended a Reform
Temple (synagogue) as a youngster and visited regularly as a child and
teen with his three living east European-raised immigrant grandparents,
an important influence later in life.
In 1991 Segan began creating the
massive "Under the Wings of G-D" art series on the Shoah,
described as a "restoration of dignity to the memory of those
brutally murdered by the Nazi’s, Fascists, their collaborators and the
silence of the world." "Under the Wings…" artworks are
drawn from photos of murdered victims and from actual birds’ wings,
offering audiences a "metaphoric and poetic" imagery that can
be readily understood in a non-threatening format. In 1999 during Segan’s first visit
to Israel [Second Int’l Conference, ‘99] he learned that Zlata
Barshewsky, his mother’s grandmother, had been a resident of the
Jewish Home for the Aged in Bialystok through the 1930’s. It is
assumed she perished at the Treblinka death camp in February ’42
following the deportations from Bialystok. Family relatives in Vilna
visited her as late as 1939; and Segan’s grandfather regularly
corresponded with her until the war; she was never heard from again. In early 1992, two months after
beginning the "wings" series, Segan located Israel Bernbaum’s
book: "My Brother’s Keeper: The Holocaust Through the Eyes of an
Artist" (Putnam, NY ’85). In print in Germany as "Ich Bin
Meines Bruders Huter," it is out-of-print in English. For a list of
other publications featuring Bernbaum’s artwork, please see Appendix. D. BERNBAUM’S AND FLUEK’S SHOAH
ART BOOKS – DIFFERENT APPROACHES Bernbaum wrote the text, and,
comparable to Fluek’s "Memories" book, it features Bernbaum’s
Shoah-themed paintings. Both used their personal experiences as
Polish-raised Jews as the springboard to address, through very
personally inspired interpretative art and using their own words, what
happened. While Fluek’s book is drawn entirely from her own
experiences, Bernbaum, who fled to the Soviet Union days before the
Warsaw Ghetto was sealed in and who survived as a soldier in the Red
Army, draws his inspiration through the depiction of what happened to
the Jews of Warsaw and Poland, from secondhand sources. E. DESIGN DIFFERENCES IN MY BROTHER’S
KEEPER AND MEMORIES OF MY LIFE Stylistically, the only difference
between Fluek’s book and Bernbaum’s is the inclusion of archival
photos and diagrams (e.g. the Warsaw Ghetto and its streets) in the
latter’s book. Bernbaum gave slide presentations to
high school students in the U.S. and Germany. After Bernbaum’s death
in late 1992. in late 1994 Segan created a slide class combining
examples from Bernbaum’s works and "Under the Wings…" art.
For Segan this meant moving his Shoah ‘wings’ art series out of the
realm of "art for art’s sake - albeit one with an educational
message that audiences would learn solely at exhibits - to direct
teaching." In late 2000 Segan ceased presenting that class and in 2001 he created two unique and separate slide classes, each focusing solely on one artist. Both classes include examples of paintings by the other artist (Bernbaum/Segan) along with examples of art by murdered Jewish artists Charlotte Salomon and Felix Nussbaum. Slide additions of drawings by Polish-Jewish artist Bruno Schulz and paintings by late Rumanian-Jewish slave labor survivor Arnold Daghani are planned.
In 2001 Segan created a website:
www.holocaust-art.org with the goal of offering viewers worldwide a
cyber-viewable art gallery with selections from Under the Wings of G-D
artworks. It includes extensive text addressing historical and aesthetic
topics on the wings art, plus information on "real-world"
(non-cyber) Slide Classes and Exhibits (presented by Segan) available
for schools, colleges, houses of worship and other venues. Forthcoming
plans include a "Responses" section with essays and other
responses written by students, clergy and others. H. BIOGRAPHICAL BACKGROUND OF TOBY
KNOBEL FLUEK Segan’s introduction to Fluek’s art was on finding the beautifully designed, small (8 ¾" height x 7 3/8" width) hardcover book "Memories of My Life in a Polish Village 1930-1949" at Seattle Public Library around ‘95. Fluek authored the text. The following biography appears in the book: "A Note about the Author: Toby
Knobel Fluek was born in the village of Czernica, Poland. In 1939 Soviet
forces occupied the village, and in 1942, following the invasion of the
Nazi’s, the Knobel family was forced to leave their home and live in
the Brody ghetto. Toby and her sister escaped from Brody in March 1943,
and she remained in hiding in her village until liberation a year later.
Only Toby and her mother survived the war; her father, two sisters, and
a brother perished. In 1949 Toby married, and, with her husband,
emigrated to the United States. "Toby Fluek has studied at the Art Students League and with the artist Joe Hing Lowe. Her paintings and drawings have been exhibited at Queensboro College, The Rockland Center for Holocaust Studies, and the Bronx Community Galleries [all in greater New York], among other places. Her work and her experiences have been featured in the documentary film Image Before My Eyes, produced by the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. She lives with her husband in New York City."
3) Film/video "Image Before My
Eyes" (YIVO, NY, 1981). Fluek was interviewed for the film, with
approximately one minute and fifty seconds footage of her talking about
her childhood and relations with gentile neighbors, her family, and the
Jewish store. Nine of her paintings and drawings are shown as part of
this footage. J. MEMORIES OF MY LIFE: FORMAT,
LAYOUT, DESIGN, CHAPTER TOPICS There is one painting or drawing per
page. Each is neatly and cleanly laid out on an expanse of white paper
so text and art are presented in a very easy-to-view design that neither
hinders nor detracts from the art whatsoever. Every page with an artwork
has a text accompaniment printed below the artwork. The seven chapters
are: 1) My Family at Work; "Having chosen her work to create
a workshop proposal for the conference theme of The Legacy of Survivors,
the acceptance of my proposal for a workshop presented me with a
challenge to create a new slide class for school presentations. A main
goal for me was to evaluate how her book can be used most effectively as
a teaching tool." L. CONSIDERATIONS IN CREATING A NEW
SLIDE CLASS With 93 paintings and drawings in the
Memories book, the first daunting question is selecting those works that
would best illustrate her story. The time-period she addresses is 19
years long. The topics she covers are incredibly diverse: from early
childhood and family members to her time in hiding and liberation, any
one of which could readily warrant a full class session of 50 minutes! A slide of her would be appropriate,
of course. I pondered: Would it be worthwhile to create an entire new
set of slides pertaining to the region of Fluek’s childhood: the
village of Czernica, the larger nearby town of Podkamien, or the larger
city of Brody, from whose ghetto she escaped and from which she was one
of the few to survive the war? A rationale for adding such material
is based on the positive responses from audience attendees of the
"My Brothers Keeper" and "Under the Wings of G-D"
classes. Dr. Deborah Schultz, Curator of the Arnold Daghani [1]
Collection at the University of Sussex, England, wrote the following to
Segan [in reference to Segan’s two presentations of "the
original" Holocaust Education Through Art class at the University
of Sussex , October ’99]: Thus the consideration of the addition
of thematically related slides external to Fluek’s life and art is
potentially an important one "not the least of which because my
small but growing photo slide collection contains none of the above, but
also because of practical considerations of monetary costs in having
slides professionally made from book plate art and/or photos, or other
materials. M. THE MEMORIES BOOK AS INSTRUCTIVE
READER Can teachers use the book by itself as
a teaching tool in the classroom? Several ways this could be facilitated
in class come to mind: The use of "out loud" in-classroom
readings of selections from the book, by students; the use of small
group discussions; essay writing assignments; and the reading aloud of
essays by students (either their own or by classmates), with discussion.
There are undoubtedly other ways in which the book can be used as a text
for students. In examining art on Shoah themes in
books and at art exhibits (both "real world" and cyberspace)
it is my view that there are two prevalent presentation styles: Those
with profuse explanatory text and those without. "I saw the whole exhibit a number
of times, where I was struck by the incredible challenge of children,
teens and adults forced to interpret for themselves (or not, as the case
may be) the imagery and symbolism of the artwork in the exhibit without
benefit of any accompanying handouts or signage." "While I talked with friends
about Witness art while I was at the museum, I was approached by
individual students who asked my insight for papers they were assigned
to write. "While there are those, including
this writer, who are thankful that a Seattle museum finally showed
artwork here addressing such a major event of recent world history, was
it used as fully as it might have? Were there gallery goers who left
perplexed, confused or in dismay at what they saw? Addressing how to
deal with such challenges is something the establishment Holocaust
centers in cities with those facilities could consider addressing.
Working with Education-Teacher Training departments at regional
universities would be a natural way to proceed." The first chapter, "My Family at
Work," introduces the format and style of the book. The first page:
"Our Farm," uses easy-to-read text about the village and its
demographics: the Jewish and gentile population, respectively, and the
nationalities of the non-Jews, who were Polish and Ukrainian. The text
accompanies the painting of the page title: Our Farm. "Occasionally I find myself
raising questions about her text, but that is an exception. I was left
to guess whether the ten Jewish families, part of a total village
population of 250, are considered Polish or Ukrainian, or neither –
and why - a question an enterprising or inquisitive student or teacher
might raise." [4] This first chapter, setting the tone
of poignancy for the entire book, contains drawings and paintings
addressing a variety of village and home topics: some of the rooms of
her childhood house, the kitchen, her father, a brother, how the
old-fashioned iron (for pressing clothes) worked, the girls from a
neighboring village who apprenticed with her sister Surcie as clothes makers, Surcie and her boyfriend, her school, the mainstay of
their diet: potatoes, the cooking of potato latkes (and not just for the
major Jewish holidays of Passover and Chanukah), her uncle Mordche and
her aunt Rifka. It offers both a lot and does so in a non-threatening
way, setting it apart from the popular perception by the public, Jewish
and non-Jewish alike, that the Shoah is an overwhelming and wrenching
subject to read about or address in art and other interpretative
formats. P. THE IMAGINATION OF REMEMBRANCE
She remembers well, and in so doing uses her imagination to bring out and pictorially represent those memories – as precious as the family photos one can see in Ann Weiss’s moving tribute in the book" The Last Album – Eyes From the Ashes of Auschwitz – Birkenau." [5] "Fluek’s ability to create
stories with pictorial illustration is very enticing. She uses her
imagination, so many years after the events she describes, as a means of
interpretative remembrance. Her work has a "preciousness" to
it that is special and unique."
R. FLUEK’S MEDIA
S. MY THOUGHTS ON HER STILL LIFE "TABLEAUX" PAINTINGS
U. FLUEK’S DRAWINGS AND DRAWINGS AS
A WINDOW INTO THE ARTISTS CREATIVITY
Her simple prose and precious visual
memory depictions inspire me to see if I can adapt the format in my
presentations to date to use with her art. 2] "Witness & Legacy: Contemporary Art About the Holocaust," Exhibit catalog pub. by Lerner Pub., Minneapolis, Minn. ’95, 2000), p. 13 [footnote 15: "Minutes of the Exhibition Jury, March 16,1943, Vilna Ghetto." Translation of YIVO Document #466 by Dina Abramowicz]
That some (but not all) of the Jewish survivors have since left the countries of their youth (in the aftermath of the Shoah) should hardly be a justification for this denial of Jews of a national culture within the countries of their origins, especially when so many, as in Poland, embraced non-Orthodox national culture as Jews. 5] The Last Album., pub: W.W. Norton, NY, 2001. Weiss spent years researching those most precious of belongings incoming inmates to Auschwitz had with them on their arrival; 2,400 of these were saved by camp inmates. Four hundred appear in the book. [Ann Weiss workshop, Second Conference: "Eyes from the Ashes – Archival Photos as Teaching Tools"] 6] E-mail
from Feinstein to Segan, Dec. 28, 2001
9] For
more information on Anatoly Kaplan, see "Russian Jewish
Artists" (pub: Prestel, Munich/NY with The Jewish Museum, NY ’95)
includes a color plate, essay on his life and work, a selected
bibliography and three b&w art reproductions, pages 178-9. 11] Steinhardt was born in Zerkow, Poland, 1887; fought in the German Army in WWI; emigrated to Palestine in 1933 where he died in 1968. Among his graphic works (see Jakob Steinhardt Etchings and Lithographs, Dvir Jerusalem – Tel Aviv, 1981) are many works portraying his grandfather, Polish villages and villagers, etc. Appendix:
Additional publications with Bernbaum art:
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