CRIME SCENE
RAILWAY LINES LEADING TO AUSCHWITZ (2014)
Series of 6
medium: rusty rods, wires, grid wire, wood
6 rusty Railroads with 84 Wooden tiles, on each tile a word is burned like a tattoo and a red number is under it; each word is a city’s name of the 84 places that Jews were taken from, loaded onto trains leading to Auschwitz. During the Holocaust prisoners received tattoos only at the Auschwitz concentration camp complex: Auschwitz I (main camp) Auschwitz II (Auschwitz –Birkenau) and Auschwitz III (Monowitz & the sub-camps). The burned words are a reminder of the serial number that was tattooed on prisoners’ forearm as well as the burning of bodies gassed in the crematoria. The numbers ranged from 1 to 84 emphasize the large amount of places where innocent people were squeezed inside trains leading to camp. The ABC order of names gives an organized feeling, it also helps the viewer find a city name; On second view we see that the letters & numbers are starting from right to left (as in Hebrew) the WWII mass murder was a very organized project turned into chaos.
6 railway lines- a reminder of the 6 million Jews that were murdered during the World War II, as well as my mother’s 6 family members, her 2 parents and 4 siblings, that didn’t survive the Holocaust.
FAMILY PORTRAIT OF A LOST HOME (2016)
size: 22.5"x 20"x 5.5"
medium: wire mesh, grid wire, burnt names, wood frame, chains, paint, glue
My mother, Paula, lost her Home in Czechoslovakia and lost her parents Arie & Leah, her brother’s Moshe & Eli, and her sisters Tzipi & Eti. Their names are burned on a wood frame, as the Auschwitz tattoo was burnt on my mother’s forearm…
I also burned the names Sarah & Israel for all the Jewish women & men who lost their homes and life in the SHOAH.
Beginning in 1939 all German Jews forced to change their names and register new official ‘Jewish’ names. Jewish men had to add “Israel” to the name they already have and Jewish women had to add “Sarah” to their names. Jewish newborns must bear Jewish names and will not be permitted to have German names at all. The parents will need to choose a name from a list of old-fashioned Jewish names for the newborn children, a list that was created by the ministry. Inside the wood frame are shadows of 6 dark wire mesh heads; for my mother’s 6 family members as well as for the 6 million Jews.
ONE SUITCASE (2017)
size: 15.5"x23"x11"
medium: old used suitcase, red fabric, black felt, metal hooks, glue
The Nazis ordered the Jews to pack One Suitcase or one bag per person to take with them on the train towards the ‘work camps’ There is very little space in one suitcase, what could they put in it? Jews weren’t given any time to prepare, sometimes they were given only one hour to pack
One destination of those trains was Auschwitz, a work and a death camp. Upon arriving the suitcases were taken away from the Jews, which most of them were sent to be murdered in gas chambers. The suitcases were gathered together and a few inmate’s work was to empty them and separate all items to piles, they put the clothes into boxes that were shipped to Germany. The empty suitcases were silent witnesses of their owners’ murders.
This special suitcase is not only a reminder to the horrific past; my father Mordechai Fried, who survived the Holocaust camps as well as DEATH MARCH, used this one suitcase while he was MARCHING around his new country of Israel enjoying LIFE.
WOUNDED SUITCASE (2019)
size: 23"x37"x25"
medium: old suitcase, a key, grid steel drawer, used metal hangers, used women's clothes, red fabric, paint, fabric hardener
A very delicate old, used and damaged suitcase, needs to be handled carefully, the back side of the suitcase is partially burned, with an open red painful, wound at one corner. a few of the suitcase parts are breaking when you touch tehm: my heart is breaking feeling the silence around...Old used and useless women's clothes are falling out of the abundant suitcase, same as they were thrown in piles like Remnants of life.
