Fritz Hirschberger

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Fritz Hirschberger

• The Sur-Rational
• Holocaust Paintings
• Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
• University of Minnesota

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Fritz Hirschberger

• Fritz
• Hirschberger
• in uniform of the
• Polish Anders
• Army in Berlin,
• 1946,
• Fought against
• Nazis, later
• prisoner in
• Soviet Union,
• released when
• Russia joined
• Allies. Unit sent to
• Palestine-fought
• Nazis in Africa.

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• After the war Hirschberger continued his art
  education in London before coming to the United
  States. In New York he worked with artists
  teaching at the New School on 12th Street. In
  1984 he moved to San Francisco, where he resides
  now. His previous work has been exhibited on the
  East Coast.
• He died in January, 2004

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INDIFFERENCEFear not your enemies, ?for they
can only kill you.Fear not your friends, ?for
they can only betray you.Fear only the
indifferent, ?who permit the killers and
betrayers to walk safely on earth.
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Indifference

• Lack of interest, care, or concern

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• The painting is suggesting of a parent sitting
  in the foreground with a small rocking horse, and
  the horrible memory of the loss of his family in
  a gas chamber, marked in the image as "bath
  house." The artist suggests that those who have
  been through the Holocaust can never fully
  recover from it, especially the negative memories
  of loss.

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1. What do you notice?As if you are telling a
blind person Recreate the picture in
words.Stick to the facts.(Any opinions about
what the person might be thinking or what the
mood of the work is will be picked up later in
the process.)
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2.What does it remind you of?
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3. What feelings does it give you-- if any?
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4. What questions does it raise?(Im
wondering)
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Based on 1-4, what guesses can you make about
what the painting means?
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Zyklon BShamefully?the blue ?fills rooms
?with death color,?It swirls?amethyst-crystals?
to paint?death onto?canvas ?forgetting the
blue ?of the sea?to pour death?through sky?to
take away ?breath,?deceiving with the?most
beautiful?of blues, ?raining death
?blue.?Alice Rogoff, San Francisco 1991
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• Zyklon "B," prussic acid in the form of
  amethyst-colored crystals, was used in Auschwitz
  and other extermination camps to murder by
  gassing the victims of the Nazis. The crystals
  were dropped through openings in the ceiling of
  the gas chambers. To fool the victims and to
  avoid panic, the gas chambers were disguised with
  fake shower heads to look like regular showers.

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• When they reached the undressing room they saw
  that it looked like an International Information
  Centre.
• On the walls were hooks,and each hook had a
  number. Beneath the hooks were wooden benches. So
  people could undress more comfortably, it was
  said.
• And on the numerous pillars that held up this
  underground undressing room, there were signs
  with slogans in several languages Clean is Good,
  Lice can kill, Wash Yourself,
• To the disinfection area.All those signs were
  only there to lure people into the gas chambers
  already undressed and to the left, at a right
  angle, was the gas chamber with its massive door.

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• The gas took about fifteen minutes to kill.

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Artist's CommentNaked and shorn, husband and
wife dance in a final embrace in Zyklon B's blue
crystal deadly rain. Rain, rain - blue rain Go
away Rain, rain - blue rain Never come Again.
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• Rudolf Hoss, commandant of Auschwitz, spoke of
  the effect of the gas
• "The door would now be quickly screwed up and the
  gas discharged by the waiting disinfectors
  through vents in the ceilings of the gas
  chambers, down a shaft that led to the floor.
  This insured the rapid distribution of the gas.
  It could be observed through the peephole in the
  door that those who were standing nearest to the
  induction vents were killed at once. It can be
  said that about one-third died straightaway. The
  remainder staggered about and began to scream and
  struggle for air. The screaming, however, soon
  changed to the death rattle and in a few minutes
  all lay still...The door was opened half an hour
  after the induction of the gas, and the
  ventilation switched on...The special detachment
  now set about removing the gold teeth and cutting
  the hair from the women. After this, the bodies
  were taken up by elevator and laid in front of
  the ovens, which had meanwhile been stoked up.
  Depending on the size of the bodies, up to three
  corpses could be put into one oven at the same
  time. The time required for cremation...took
  twenty minutes."

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(No Transcript)
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• At Auschwitz/Birkenau extermination camp some of
  the world's finest musicians were forced to
  perform for the amusement of the Nazi SS guards,
  while their Jewish victims were tortured and
  gassed. Henry Meyer, a cousin of the artist,
  played the violin in one of the death camp
  orchestras at Auschwitz/Birkenau. He survived and
  became a protege of Isaac Stern. Henry Meyer and
  three other survivors of the Shoah, founded the
  world famous "La Salle" string quartet.

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The Same Fire

• Melting the tallow heretics
• Ousting the Jews?
• Their thick palls flow
• Over the cicatrix of
• Poland,burnt-out?
• Germany?
• They do not die.??
• Grey birds obsess my heart,
• ?Mouth-ash, of eye,?
• They settle. On the high?
• Precipice?
• That emptied one man into
• space?
• The ovens glowed like heavens? Incandescent?
• ?It is a heart,?
• This holocaust I walk in,

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• "Mother", said the Polish girl
• to the Polish woman by her side,
• "Why is the rain black ?
• The Polish woman replied, "I don't know why it
  is black".
• "Mother", said the Jewish girl
• to the Jewish woman squatting down,
• "Why is the rain black ?"
• Darkened tears flood the eyes,
• "The sky in mourning has
• covered all with ashes dark".
• The Polish clotheslines remain naked,
• while laundry dries inside homes,
• in vain trying to escape
• staining their souls.
• "Polish Sky" Acrylic., 48 x 60 inch 1997 Saul
  Balagura

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http//www.chgs.umn.edu/museum/responses/komski/in
dex.html
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http//www.theartfulbrain.com/artwork.htm

• http//www.theartfulbrain.com/artwork.htm