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Survivors and mementos with meaning

When she arranged to meet and photograph the Holocaust survivors of Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles’ Café Europa, Barbara Mack gave them only one instruction: Bring something of personal value.
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January 28, 2016

When she arranged to meet and photograph the Holocaust survivors of Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles’ Café Europa, Barbara Mack gave them only one instruction: Bring something of personal value.

Most of the subjects complied, arriving with a hodgepodge of items that included a musical instrument, a Kiddush cup, a spoon, a T-shirt and a photograph.

Rina Drexler

Sylvia Bernhut

“If they didn’t have something from the past, they could bring something from the present,” said Mack, whose 80 black-and-white portraits were compiled in two books and for exhibitions at the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust (LAMOTH). “Not everybody brought objects, but for all those people who were carrying something, it made this exhibit a little different from most Holocaust survivor exhibits. Each time you look at it, you think, ‘OK, why is this here?’ It adds a little bit of mystery to the pictures.”

The mysteries are unshrouded in captions accompanying the photographs of “Portraits in Black and White: Survivors and What They Carry,” on display at LAMOTH through Feb. 29. The books, also published by LAMOTH, go into even greater detail, with Mack and her co-authors Jane Jelenko (for volume I) and Pamela Wick (volume II) spreading each survivor’s story across a full page of text.

The lined and hugely expressive faces of these 80 men and women seem to tell stories all by themselves, but the objects add an entirely new dimension. During an interview at LAMOTH, Mack pointed to the thin cotton garment draped over the arm of Sophie Zeidman Hamburger, which rested next to the number tattoo she was given as a prisoner at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. She wore the garment when she broke off from a death march and fled into the forest.

Sophie Zeidman Hamburger

“It’s only the top half. The bottom half was too dirty, and she had to cut it off,” Mack said. “She didn’t want to keep it.”

In another photo, twin sisters Rita Sigelstein Kahane and Serena Sigelstein Rubin hold up the broken mezuzot they discovered in an elegant abandoned German house. After the liberation, the sisters entered the house looking for food and were astounded to discover that it had obviously been the home of a Jewish family. They also found a tiny key that now hangs from a chain around Serena’s neck — without knowing what the key unlocked.  

“They started telling me things about their objects,” said Mack, who retired from a career as a clinical psychologist before turning to photography, “And I thought, ‘Oh, this has to be written down.’ ”

That sentiment fit the goals of LAMOTH, which looks to preserve important stories and continue the discussion about events of the past. Even the Café Europa members who were photographed without an object are “carriers” of their own history.

Lazlo Vardi

“Many survivors have written their memoires, but so many have not because it’s a huge undertaking,” said Samara Hutman, LAMOTH executive director. “That their history can live on in the context of this exhibit is a very powerful thing for this city because it’s a part of the education not only of Jewish students in this city but of all students.”

Susie Forer-Dehrey, executive vice president of Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles (JFSLA) said Mack has provided an incredible legacy.

“These survivors live in our community, and they deserve to have their stories retold. The survivors will not always be here, but the idea is that when you hear the story you become a witness. Through the exhibit and the books, the stories will live on and we can share them with generations to come.”

Seven years ago, Forer-Dehrey approached Mack about doing some volunteer work with the participants of Café Europa, a social club that brings Holocaust survivors together to build relationships and share activities. Forer-Dehrey came up with the idea of having Mack take portrait photos of the Café Europa participants.

Albert Rosa

Mack quickly agreed. In addition to the artistic challenge, she said the subject struck a chord personally, as well. Mack’s Hebrew name is Toba in honor of her paternal great-grandmother Toba Machlovitz, who was fatally shot, along with many Jews in Mielec, Poland, during the Holocaust.

“I was so close to my grandfather, and he always used to tell me about his mother and what happened to her,” Mack said. “So every time I was doing this, I thought of her and I thought of my grandfather and I was very inspired by that.”

Mack began photographing the Café Europa members who met in Los Angeles at the Westside Jewish Community Center. In 2010, after seeing the photographs in JFSLA’s annual report, LAMOTH President E. Randol Schoenberg requested some of the photographs for the museum’s permanent collection in its new location in Pan Pacific Park. The museum published the first volume of “Portraits in Black and White” in book form and displayed the portraits in a 2011 exhibition.

Ultimately, members of the San Fernando Valley Café Europa requested their own photographs, and Mack took up her Hasselblad camera and black-and-white film once again. The current exhibition includes portraits from both city and Valley Café Europa sessions, as well as several that Mack placed on silkscreen. In the seven years since she started this project, several of the subjects have died.

For the second round of photographs, Mack asked the survivors whether their experiences during the Holocaust changed their views of God and Judaism. A selection of their responses can be found at the end of volume II. They range from “I cannot believe in a God who would allow the Holocaust to happen” to “God was with me in Auschwitz and all over.”

“Many of these survivors never had their stories told and never wanted to. Part of the way they made a new life for them was to put it behind them,” Mack said. “It was very courageous of them to tell their stories. There were a lot of tears, but they did it.”

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