Israeli artist Ruth Schreiber’s solo exhibition “Images of a Jewish Family History” will take place in Sassanfahrt, Bavaria, where her father’s Shoa story began.
Based on family letters written during the Holocaust by her grandparents to their UK-based children, this Holocaust Remembrance Installation includes drawings, video art, fabric art, screen prints and sculptures.
Her art tells the story of her family, the Jewish family Merel from Sassanfahrt.
The letters, sent to Lotte, Esther and Nathan, their three children who were sent to the UK when that was still doable, cover what we know of their fate, from Drancy to Auschwitz, where Samuel perished, and to Camp de Rivesaltes, where Minna died. Their last spoken words to their children were in Yiddish; they were “Bleib a Yid” [Stay Jewish].
Read Jerusalem Post article here.
VIDEO of the opening event Nov. 7:
Index of video sections
Set-up Jerusalem-Sassanfahrt
01:40 Opening comments by Elke Eberl, Deputy Mayor of neighboring Hirschaid
02:56 Comments by Dr. Rebekka Denz, Head of Jewish Studies in Bamberg University
14:40 Musical interlude
16:05 Ruth Schreiber
17:38 Annette Schäfer, Cultural Director of Hirschaid Municipality, historian and initiator of the exhibition
19:55 Tour of the Exhibition with remarks by Annette and Ruth
If you are interested in more in-depth interviews:
36:30 Annette Schäfer gives a personal account of her feelings about the exhibition and remembrance
50:30 Rainer Zeh, with translation by (Annette’s husband and Art Historian) Robert Schäfer.
It was Rainer who researched the history of the Merel family (my maiden name)
1:012:35 Rebekka Denz gives additional background on her role.
The exhibition opens on Sunday November 7th at 1pm in Schloss Sassenfahrt, where it will remain until January 2nd, before moving to nearby Bamberg, January 7th-February 28th.
Images from upper left:
Masks- one of the paper masks each approx 10x7x4 inches
Letters from my Grandparents.
Kindertransport dresses with capes, each approx. 120x40cm
Four drawings, 1. Minna and family 30x21cm (8×12 inches)
Stolpersteine (18x28cm) [photograph on thick paper]
Tribute to my Grandparents cropped 26x27x17cm. variable [bronze]