Language:
English
Year of publication:
2000
Titel der Quelle:
Representations
Angaben zur Quelle:
69 (2000) 38-62
Keywords:
Levin, Mikael,
;
Reinartz, Dirk,
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Sources
;
World War, 1939-1945 Photography
Abstract:
Based on two landscape photographs, by Dirk Reinartz (from his "Deathly Still: Pictures of Former German Concentration Camps, " 1995) and Mikael Levin (from Meyer Levin's "War Story, " 1997), discusses the images of the now unrecognizable sites of the Sobibor concentration camp and the Ohrdruf labor camp as reflecting the European landscape tradition which focuses on a sense of place. Claims that before commentary, explanation, or understanding of the Holocaust comes the need to find a position from which to gain access to it. Images that avoid showing direct traces of the Holocaust, but rather stress absence, confront the viewer with the truth that something has disappeared, thus alerting him to the danger of the destruction of memory. He is encouraged to try to find a place from which to struggle against such destruction. Mikael Levin is the son of the novelist Meyer Levin who entered Ohrdruf the day after it was abandoned by the SS.
Note:
Especially on the work of Mikael Levin and Dirk Reinartz.
URL:
Locate this publication in Israeli libraries
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