This series grapples with the challenges of language to describe, to remember, to stand up for, to exclaim, to lament, to defend, to accuse.
The pieces in this body of work engage directly with four texts; “A Year in Treblinka” by Jankiel Wiernik, “The Journal of Helene Berr” by Helene Berr, testimony from Franz Suchomel trial from the Treblinka Trials, and the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.
Jankiel Wiernik was a Polish Jewish Holocaust survivor who wrote about his time in the Treblinka extermination camp. He was a master carpenter who ended up building much of the infrastructure of the camp. Over the course of two years he was able to move somewhat freely across the camp and was part of one of only a handful of successful resistance attempts.
Helene Berr was a young Jewish woman in occupied Paris who was the daughter of a diplomat, thus the family felt certain they’d be safe from being sent away. Her journal documents in real time the family’s experience.
Franz Suchomel was a guard at Treblinka and was sentenced to only six years in jail. Charges against him included the murder of at least 700,000 Jews.
The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights was a document drafted in direct response to the atrocities of WWII and was envisioned to be a common standard of achievements for all peoples and all nations.