Collection

PORTRAITS OF SURVIVORS OF NAZISM AND SHOAH

In the history of mankind there can be found no other crime so heinous, nor so coldly calculated, as the one that as that which annihilated millions of human beings in the Nazi concentration camps. Reduced and subjected to the most appalling moral and physical degradation, men, women and children were savagely tortured and dragged to the gas chambers, for the sole reason of belonging to a race considered inferior, or of holding religious or political beliefs opposed to those of the "Race of the Lords".

According to history, and following the terminology of the "Nazi State", what is technically also known as the "Final Solution" is identified with the name of "The Holocaust"; the attempt in the middle of the 20th century to totally annihilate the Jewish population of Europe.

The persecution and murder of the Jews, not only took place in Germany and in the various concentration camps created for this purpose, but also extended to Russia, Eastern Europe and the Balkan peninsula, where the Germans and their collaborators carried out multiple massacres of Jews, in pits, forests, ravines and trenches.

Because of these persecutions, many Jews took the initiative to emigrate to the American continent, dividing themselves between the Germans and their collaborators.

American continent, dividing themselves between North and South America. Others were not so lucky and were captured and subjected to terrible suffering and torture. For many, survival was a true miracle; others simply lived to witness the bloody murder of their loved ones.

This project has allowed me to enter for a brief moment into the lives of an important group of these exiles and survivors, who arrived in Latin American lands many years ago to start a new life; and who have given me the honor of knowing a little about them and their experiences, as well as to photograph them and immortalize them through photography.

PROJECT MOTIVATION

When I was only nine years old, one of the first books I read was "The Diary of Anne Frank", which gave me my first glimpse of the atrocities committed by the Nazis in Europe.

Later in 2009, and already being a photographer, I was hired by the Unión Israelita de Caracas to make a series of portraits of the survivors of Nazism and the Shoah in Venezuela, which have been captured in the book "El Exilio a la vida", published in 2011 by the same Unión Israelita de Caracas; a wonderful publication that brings together biographies, testimonies, personal documentation and portraits of the survivors who arrived in Venezuela after long journeys through various Latin American countries.

I could say that this work was the beginning, the inspiration, to wish to travel and document that world of testimonies and experiences of the survivors who live in our continent, as a legacy to their families and to the world, never to forget.

And more recently in 2020, I decided to present the Project: Portraits of Survivors of Nazism and the Shoah, to the Holocaust Remembrance Center of Uruguay, from whom I had a very positive response. That same year, despite the pandemic, I began to portray and interview survivors in Uruguay, and to develop the work of research, writing biographies and testimonies, which I did thanks to the support of Rita Vinocur, and Sandra Veinstein, Director and Deputy Director of the Shoah Museum of Uruguay, respectively.

The work developed culminates in May 2022, when thanks to the sponsorship of the Municipality of Montevideo, the organization of the Museum of Migration MUMI and the Holocaust Remembrance Center of Uruguay, the exhibition "Portraits of Survivors of Nazism and the Shoah" will be inaugurated. After two months in this museum, the exhibition will begin to travel through various departments of Uruguay.

This project, which began with these two approaches so far carried out in Venezuela and Uruguay, and to which it is expected (or desired) to add those of survivors who are in other countries of the American continent, represents in my personal and professional life more than an approach, a very close experience to hear firsthand their stories, marked by respect for so much pain inflicted; generating both a motivation that grows to investigate in depth, about the holocaust and the history of each of the survivors.

PROJECT OBJECTIVES

One of the main objectives of this project is to keep alive the history of what happened in the Holocaust. The survivors are very old people and in the last decade unfortunately many of them have passed away. My goal in portraying them is to immortalize and honor them, as well as to keep their stories alive in order to prevent something similar

to prevent something similar from happening again. Unfortunately, in the world in which we live there is still anti-Semitism and discrimination, and we are not exempt from the possibility of something similar to the Holocaust happening again.

Another important objective is to try to educate future generations through the art of photography, to educate future generations about what happened in the Holocaust.

PROJECT APPROACH

The project proposes to portray each living survivor in order to obtain a current, present figure; therefore, portraits made in the past are not considered in the project.

The development of the Project comprises three elements: the Biography of the survivor, which is written based on the survivor's testimony and the results of research; the Survivor's Story, where the testimony of the survivor's experiences is taken through audio recordings; and a current Portrait of the survivor, which links the present and the past, thus assuring the reader that the testimony he/she reads is of the person he/she sees in the photo, and that this person survived, continued with his/her life and had children and grandchildren, despite adversities.

WHAT IS OUR PROPOSAL IN NFT

Our proposal is to create a NFT with each Survivor portrait. The portrait will be accompanied by his or her biography and testimony.

The cryptocurrency chosen for the mint is Ethereum and the platform selected is Sloika for being a Marketplace specialized in NFT photography.

BENEFITS OF THE NFT HOLDER

• Each holder of 1 NFT will be contributing to the continuity of the project. With the proceeds my goal is to continue traveling the American continent portraying and interviewing survivors.

• Each NFT holder will be contributing their investment to the printing of a top quality Photobook printed in China with the entire collection of "Portraits of Survivors of Nazism and the Shoah". The book will be distributed through a worldwide photobook publisher and a portion will be donated to libraries in different countries and to libraries of Jewish institutions around the world.

• Each NFT holder will appear on a page of the book as a project sponsor. They will have the option of appearing with their name, username or the name of the institution they represent.

• When the book is printed, each holder will receive a signed copy + an A4 size print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Pearl 310 gsm paper identified, signed and stamped of the portrait they purchased as NFT.