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I Colorized And Restored Holocaust Pictures So People Never Forget About These Horrible Events
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I was recently shocked to read these words in The New York Times: "For seven decades, “never forget” has been a rallying cry of the Holocaust remembrance movement.
But a survey released Thursday, on Holocaust Remembrance Day, found that many adults lack basic knowledge of what happened — and this lack of knowledge is more pronounced among millennials, whom the survey defined as people ages 18 to 34.
Thirty-one percent of Americans, and 41 percent of millennials, believe that two million or fewer Jews were killed in the Holocaust; the actual number is around six million. Forty-one percent of Americans, and 66 percent of millennials, cannot say what Auschwitz was. And 52 percent of Americans wrongly think Hitler came to power through force."
I first started working on this project several years ago, using contemporary reference photographs to colorize and restore photographs from the Holocaust and I did publish them on my Facebook and on my blog, but now I'm realizing that that wasn't nearly enough and so I worked on them a bit more and I'm publishing them again here. It seems to me that colorized images will help people to better empathize with the victims of the Holocaust and I hope that any artist that is interested in working with me to colorize more images or even to improve the ones that I've colorized so far would please contact me. I am also interested in being contacted by anyone who could help me with this project in general. This project is not for profit but feel free to follow me on my Facebook, Instagram, Patreon or Youtube or check out my webpage.
Also, if you are going to be in Houston on May 19th please come and check out an art show of my large drawings at Gray Contemporary.
More info: joachimwest.com | Instagram | patreon.com | youtube.com
#1 Wedding Bands Found During The Liberation Of Buchenwald Concentration Camp
#2 Colorized Photograph Of Anne Frank
Honestly, I love learning about the Holocaust. Ot is just an interesting topic for me, as I come from German decent. I don't think anyone should forget about it, and I think the people who say it didn't happen need to hit reality.
#3 Colorized Photo Of A Catholic Girl - Czesława Kwoka - 1942-43
Someone has said that black&white make characters/situations seem so far away. So colour make it more real, more current. Result is frightening.
#4 Colorized Photograph From Auschwitz Concentration Camp
#5 Colorized Photo From The Daschau Concentration Camp
#7 Restored Color Photograph - Poland - 1939-40
She has such a beautiful face. Seeing something like this makes it seem like not so long ago.
#8 Restored Color Photograph - Poland - 1939-40
Bakery trucks bringing them bread in the ghetto. Language on the side is German, though Polish could be similar. I am so sad looking at this, their earnest faces filled with anger and worry, and the little girl in the background inexplicably happy about something.
#9 Restored Color Photograph - Poland - 1939-40
#10 Restored Color Photograph - Poland - 1939-40
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Those statistics shock me. What is even worse is that with time they are only going to get higher. I was at a Holocaust Memorial in Boston recently and was shocked at a teenager who kept saying, "What are all these names for?" The questions he kept throwing out were amazing but then I realized that at least (the very least) he was asking because the memorial was there. Never forget indeed. Lets hope there are enough people in the world who are not apathetic in the future to let it happen.
Thank you for commenting.
I feel the same way... I'm shocked. I'm also deeply troubled for the future.
The schools are not teaching them these things. If they do, they gloss it over and move on to more pleasant topics. The teachers are more concerned about keeping the students "happy" than teaching them hard cold facts. When I was in school, our teacher drilled this into us, we read the history, we saw the photos, we saw the films. Yes, we were shocked by it, but we remember.
It's not that teachers want to teach only "pleasing" things, it's that at least in the USA testing is so focused on reading and math and writing that there is little time for anything else! Good test scores are a teachers only hope for a financial bonus. Plus, they're required to teach to exact standards some of which may not (unfortunately) include an in- depth look into this events and others like it! It's not necessarily a teacher's personal choice!
the added colour somehow makes them more real, more relate-able, sadder, even more soul shatteringly shocking and they were always these things and more. I guess some people might be able to distance themselves from the events because of the aged black and white world it seems to have been (as apposed to the multi-colour world of today), but there's was an experience that should never be forgotten, always remembered and those lost held forever near. (hope that all makes sense)
Exactly.
My hometown was tormented during WW2. Every 17th of May we place down flower on out memorial for the victims which faces the fjords as not everyone came home.
Beautiful the flowers are still put there. In the Netherlands (I do not know where you are from) we always have 2 special days. May 4th the remembrance of the passed in this war, always a sort of ceremony placing a wrath and 2 minutes of silence at 20.00h. And May 5th the celebration of our freedom. I love these days still continue. To remember what has happened. The tragedy. And the fact that we are free from this war.
Those statistics shock me. What is even worse is that with time they are only going to get higher. I was at a Holocaust Memorial in Boston recently and was shocked at a teenager who kept saying, "What are all these names for?" The questions he kept throwing out were amazing but then I realized that at least (the very least) he was asking because the memorial was there. Never forget indeed. Lets hope there are enough people in the world who are not apathetic in the future to let it happen.
Thank you for commenting.
I feel the same way... I'm shocked. I'm also deeply troubled for the future.
The schools are not teaching them these things. If they do, they gloss it over and move on to more pleasant topics. The teachers are more concerned about keeping the students "happy" than teaching them hard cold facts. When I was in school, our teacher drilled this into us, we read the history, we saw the photos, we saw the films. Yes, we were shocked by it, but we remember.
It's not that teachers want to teach only "pleasing" things, it's that at least in the USA testing is so focused on reading and math and writing that there is little time for anything else! Good test scores are a teachers only hope for a financial bonus. Plus, they're required to teach to exact standards some of which may not (unfortunately) include an in- depth look into this events and others like it! It's not necessarily a teacher's personal choice!
the added colour somehow makes them more real, more relate-able, sadder, even more soul shatteringly shocking and they were always these things and more. I guess some people might be able to distance themselves from the events because of the aged black and white world it seems to have been (as apposed to the multi-colour world of today), but there's was an experience that should never be forgotten, always remembered and those lost held forever near. (hope that all makes sense)
Exactly.
My hometown was tormented during WW2. Every 17th of May we place down flower on out memorial for the victims which faces the fjords as not everyone came home.
Beautiful the flowers are still put there. In the Netherlands (I do not know where you are from) we always have 2 special days. May 4th the remembrance of the passed in this war, always a sort of ceremony placing a wrath and 2 minutes of silence at 20.00h. And May 5th the celebration of our freedom. I love these days still continue. To remember what has happened. The tragedy. And the fact that we are free from this war.