A Memorial to Commemoration, Told Through Film Stills, 2023
Large format prints with glossy finish adhered to nine double-sided aluminum panels with aluminum frames
83 x 36 inches each (211 x 91 cm); installation dimensions variable
St. Ottilien Archabbey
Eresing, Bavaria, DE
September 16 - November 14, 2023
“Earlier this month Daniel forwarded to me a letter from the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site, inviting an escort and me to come to the Memorial Meeting in Dachau early in May 2015. The official title of the event was, and I’m translating here loosely from the German: The Memorial Proceedings Occasioned by the Observance of the Seventieth Anniversary of the Liberation of Concentration Camp Dachau, April 30th to May 3rd 2015. Travel and accommodation would be paid for by the organization arranging the ceremony.
After some early hesitation I agreed to go. My main reason for consenting to attend was my awareness that Daniel would have the opportunity to photograph, film, and write about a cluster of events to which he has a direct connection. Daniel, his friends and schoolmates, starting in early grades at school, were successively more and more aware of detailed levels of the Shoah. This planned visit may become his history and a part of the effort of the world to keep remembering.
We inmates during the war had promised each other that the one who survives would tell. Yet it took nearly a generation before the word “Holocaust” came into general use, before the Shoah became a subject of study. Today, seventy years after the liberation of Dachau, there exist centers of Holocaust studies at all major universities across the globe. We did keep our promise.
The entire trip will last only seven days, and a good part of it will be traveling from place to place. My preference would be for at least two weeks. I’ll manage the physical strain.
Experience of earlier involvement with commemoration has taught me to be prepared for the unexpected. About a month ago I went to talk to a large group of high school students. It took me two days to regain my balance. Two weeks later I talked to students in the Social Sciences Department of New York University, and I left in a good mood. I know that I cannot predict my reaction from case to case.
Anticipating the range of planned events, I’m trying to brace myself for the unexpected. I’m aware of my physical fragility. Fatigue, lack of sleep, long travel, jet lag, the sudden immersion into a German speaking community, plus that long list of living with the past will travel with me.
My full reaction to this invitation should include my feelings and thoughts of the moment, and I’m aware of the lack of a special or different attitude today. Over the years I have developed a mode of living with the past and it probably remained basically the same. As anniversaries come and go I could add but little to my Notes for the Abraham Joshua Heschel Shoah Archives.
Observances of this seventieth year after liberation include items reported in many of the media stories across the world. The rather late attention to the Turkish genocide of Armenians has become a political hot spot. Currently Sunni and Shia do their best to eliminate each other, and both are also the targets for Islamic radicals. Looking at the entire gamut I see the usual villains: fundamentalism, organized religions, national exceptionalisms, and economic superstitions.”
– Fred Terna, April 22, 2015
Sunday, May 3, 2015
A COPY OF NOTES MADE ON MY NEW TOY, AN I-PAD
Thus far mostly Dachau and commemoration.
A cold and rainy day, quiet in tone with the occasion.
Starting early from the hotel in Munich, eventually filling up the bus with people from different hotels.
The central event, the speech by Angela Merkel; beginning with a larger meeting and religiously focused ceremony at the Jewish memorial site; people sitting in a tent in front of the place, the tent too small to accommodate the number of people, probably several hundred.
Speeches by various officials, including a woman, the present head of the Jewish community in Germany. All speeches much too long, recapitulating history with the evident effort of leaving a historical record, and repeating the obligation of Never Again.
A rabbi, a Chassid in full uniform, supplied the Jewish religious angle. Central Casting would have been proud of supplying the perfect stereotype. His tone was Eastern Sub-Carpathian heavy ultra orthodoxy, the volume at maximum, the occasion probably a good excuse for a performance of a right wing far right politico. I sat at the outer ledge of the tent, barely shielded from the continuing heavy rain. At the conclusion, other men in a variety of religious garb appeared. Various Greek Orthodox that I could not identify were to do their thing, but I left the tent then. The sum of religious expressions exceeded my tolerance. The notion of theodicy never came up. There should have been the presence of a Muslim clergyman. The absurdity of religiosity at Dachau seems to have been ignored by all.
I wonder about the depth of religious awareness of the survivors attending. I wonder how many of the attending survivors were Jews. The percentage of Hungarian speaking was rather high, Hebrew was perhaps second. The percentage was probably determined by the choices of the organizing group.
After a break for food, ceremonies were to continue. A big tent. Having had to deal with a measure of chaotic planning, this was a well-planned performance. The attendance to the tent was limited to the survivors plus all the officials, dignitaries, diplomats, VIPs of the German establishment, U.S. Army, film crews, musicians, all adding up to many hundreds of people, all this underlining the importance of the political, nay, historical moment of the speech by the head of the German government at the site of Dachau. Angela Merkel’s speech was mercifully to the point, comparatively brief, and rather predictable. Then came a group of students, more speakers, trumpeters, wreath laying, plus the usual basic ceremonial performances.
Sitting there fairly far back and aware of my role as one of the props, I thought that I would just sit through the various program points. At the end, I was in an emotionally fragile mood, and in need of some quiet and calm, and it was not available there. Earlier during the morning I had promised a reporter of the German equivalent of PBS to be interviewed. The inside of the tent was too noisy and chaotic after all the action there. The film crew wanted to have a Dachau Camp background, and the remaining place was the outside, and it was still raining. Three barely adequate umbrellas had to do. I think that the reporter and crew got exactly what they wanted, a somewhat frail old survivor, emotionally not quite back in balance, talking on the Appellplatz in Dachau, in the rain doing what seems to him an obligation to remembrance. Daniel meanwhile was somewhere moving around filming, perhaps adding footage to his file.
Sonntag, 3. Mai 2015
EINE KOPIE MEINER NOTIZEN AUF MEINEM NEUEN SPIELZEUG, EINEM I-PAD
Bisher vor allem Dachau und Gedenken.
Ein kalter, regnerischer Tag, ziemlich passend zum Anlass.
Früh am Hotel in München losgefahren, den Bus nach und nach gefüllt mit Menschen aus anderen Hotels.
Der zentrale Programmpunkt, die Rede von Angela Merkel; zu Anfang ein größeres Zusammenkommen und eine vor allem religiöse Zeremonie an einer Jüdischen Gedenkstätte; die Leute sitzen in einem Zelt davor, das Zelt zu klein für die Anzahl der Menschen, wahrscheinlich mehrere hundert. Reden von diversen Amtsträgern, unter ihnen eine Frau, derzeitige Präsidentin der Jüdischen Gemeinde in Deutschland. Alle Reden viel zu lang, das Rekapitulieren von Geschichte in der offensichtlichen Anstrengung, ein Zeichen zu setzen, und immerzu das obligatorische Nie Wieder.
Ein Rabbi, ein Chassid in voller Montur, lieferte den Jüdisch-religiösen Blickwinkel. Jede Castingagentur für Komparsen wäre stolz, das perfekte Klischee besorgt zu haben. Sein Tonfall war Ost-sub-Karpatisch, stark ultra orthodoxisch, in maximaler Lautstärke, der Anlass wahrscheinlich ein guter Vorwand für den Auftritt eines rechtspopulistischen, weit rechtsstehenden Politikfritzen. Ich saß am äußersten Rand des Zeltes, kaum geschützt vor dem anhaltenden Regen. Am Ende erschienen noch andere Männer in diversen religiösen Kluften. Verschiedene Griechisch-Orthodoxe, die ich nicht ausmachen konnte, gingen ihren Dingen nach, aber zu dem Zeitpunkt verließ ich das Zelt. Die Vielzahl an religiösen Akten überstieg meine Toleranzschwelle. Der Begriff der Theodizee kam nie zur Sprache. Es hätte ein muslimischer Geistlicher anwesend sein sollen. Die Absurdität der Religiosität in Dachau schien von allen ignoriert worden zu sein.
Ich frage mich, wie tief das religiöse Bewusstsein bei den anwesenden Überlebenden ist. Ich frage mich, wie viele der anwesenden Überlebenden Juden sind. Eine hohe Prozentzahl sprach Ungarisch, Hebräisch vielleicht an zweiter Stelle. Die prozentuale Zusammensetzung wurde wahrscheinlich durch die Auswahl der Veranstalter bestimmt.
Nach einer Essenspause ging die Feier weiter. Nach bisher eher chaotischer Planung war das ein gut geplanter Auftritt. Ein großes Zelt. Der Zugang zum Zelt war limitiert auf die Überlebenden plus all die Amtsträger, Würdenträger, Diplomaten, VIPs des deutschen Establishments, US-Armee, Filmteams, Musiker, alle zusammen mehrere hundert Menschen, die die Wichtigkeit dieses politischen, nein, historischen Moments unterstrichen, die Rede einer deutschen amtierenden Regierungschefin in Dachau. Angela Merkels Rede war zum Glück auf das Wesentliche beschränkt, vergleichsweise kurz und ziemlich vorhersehbar. Dann kam eine Gruppe Studenten, noch mehr Redner, Trompeter, Kranzniederlegung, plus die üblichen zeremoniellen Standarddarbietungen.
Im Bewusstsein über meine Rolle als Requisit und ziemlich weit hinten sitzend, dachte ich, dass ich die verschiedenen Programmpunkte einfach aussitzen würde. Am Ende war ich in einem emotional fragilen Zustand, hatte das Bedürfnis nach Ruhe und Stille, was dort aber nicht möglich war. Am Morgen hatte ich einem Journalisten von einem deutschen Äquivalent zu PBS ein Interview versprochen. Das Innere des Zeltes war zu laut und zu chaotisch nach all dem Trubel dort. Die Filmcrew wollte einen Dachau-Lager-Hintergrund, also blieb nur draußen und es regnete immer noch. Drei dürftige Regenschirme mussten genügen. Ich glaube das Filmteam und der Reporter bekamen genau das, was sie wollten: Einen ziemlich gebrechlichen alten Überlebenden, emotional noch nicht ganz beisammen, der auf dem Appellplatz in Dachau erzählt und im Regen seine Pflicht des Erinnerns erfüllt. In der Zwischenzeit lief Daniel irgendwo herum, filmte und sammelte wahrscheinlich Material.
Material/Inheritance
Jewish Museum of Maryland
Baltimore, MD
March 26 – June 11, 2023
Verso, 2023
LED screens, HD video loops, color, sound
50 x 63 inches (50 x 30 inches each)