When Memory Speaks: The Holocaust in Art

(Hardback)

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This diverse collection focuses on the art expression from the inferno of the Holocaust. Although the Holocaust represents one of the worst atrocities in the history of mankind, it is thought by many only in terms of statistics - the brutal slaughter of over 6 million lives. The art of those who suffered under the most unspeakable conditions and the art of those who reflect on the genocide remind us that statistics cannot tell the entire story. This important and diverse collection focuses on the art expression from the inferno, documenting the Holocaust through sketches of camp life drawn surreptitiously by victims on scraps of paper, and through contemporary paintings, sculpture and personal reflections. From an informative and comprehensive perspective, this book evokes a powerful response to the 20th-century catastrophe.

Reviews

"A significant addition to scholarship about how artists have reacted to the Shoah. Providing a survey of some of the background and significant contemporary visual representations, it includes discussions of various grouping of artists as well as monuments, such as aspects of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum as an architectural/artistic space. Implicit in Toll's discussion is the issue of whether such art with a painful reference will be integrated or not into the legacy of the 20th century's visual aesthetic, or whether it resists scholarly categorization. If art is not integrated, and remains outside the framework of collective knowledge, then artists will have failed in their quest to convey the story and memory of the event. Toll reminds us that as we must look at history and literature, so we must look at paintings and other forms of art to help us igderstand this monumental event."-Stephen Feinstein Professor of History University of Minnesota
"A visual treasure trove, an assemblage of some of the world's great artists who wrestled with the evil of the Holocaust in diverse art forms. It is a testimony to the human spirit to confront evil, to depict evil. Most poignant are the various artistic expressions from the inferno, which demonstrate the deepest urge to bear witness, to document the history, to depict the tragedy."-Dr. Michael Berenbaum President and C.E.O. Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, Los Angeles
"This book is a major contribution to the history of the Shoah."-Yehuda Nir, M.D. Professor of Psychiatry, Cornell University
When Memory Speaks-The Holocaust in Art is an important, graphic document that cannot and must not be ignored. Behind every drawing there is a long chain of individual losses and extended tragedies. Each work of art serves as a reminder of the unprecedented act of Nazi genocide. The witnesses' determination to record it deserves our utmost gratititude-Congress Monthly
"When Memory Speaks-The Holocaust in Art is an important, graphic document that cannot and must not be ignored. Behind every drawing there is a long chain of individual losses and extended tragedies. Each work of art serves as a reminder of the unprecedented act of Nazi genocide. The witnesses' determination to record it deserves our utmost gratititude"-Congress Monthly

Author Bio

NELLY TOLL teaches Humanities at Rowan University. A frequent lecturer and former guide at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, she is currently pursuing a doctorate degree in Literacy at the University of Pennsylvania. She is author of Without Surrender: Art of the Holocaust, and Behind the Secret Window, which was adapted into a play at the Annenberg Theatre of the University of Pennsylvania in June 1997 and is presently touring Europe.