Trauma:

1. Trauma: A commemoration to the rawest human emotions

2. Table of Contents • Directors Foreword 3 • Artwork 4-6 • Poetry/Literature • Memorials

3. One particularly unique human phenomena is the tendency to memorialize and attempt to convey individual accounts of trauma. For some reason, sympathy is not enough; humans who have experienced trauma try their best to evoke the more meaningful feeling of empathy. Comprehending what the conditions of an individual’s response to trauma is not sufficient to understanding the reality of what occurred. Aside from recounting individual accounts, those afflicted by trauma have made significant strides towards fostering the feeling of empathy through various memorials & homages to trauma. The sole purpose of this museum is to provide a public setting in which visitors will have the opportunity to explore and interact with representations of trauma through various mediums that make ground in conveying the complexities and uniqueness of each traumatic event/occurrence.

4. Artwork

5. The following are prominent works of Holocaust painter & early modernist Marc Chagall. Chagall is most notable known for his work in extensive work themed around the New & Old Testament seen above. Deeply affected by the events of the Shoah, Chagall began incorporating Jewish and Christian themes into his representations of the holocaust; in an effort to convey the universal significance of this occurrence.

6. These works were constructed by ZinoviiTolkatchev, a private in the Russian Army. A soviet artist, Tolkatchev created official art for the Soviet Regime. He is well known for two series of paintings following his witnessing of the liberation of the death camp Majdanek and subsequently the liberation of Auschwitz. His works reached acclaim for the simplistic nature in which they were created; both series were primarily drawn with pencil on paper. In the rare occasions he depicted color, Tolkatchev utilized crayons and simple base colors to illustrate the desolation of the camps after liberation.

7. The following is a collection of children’s drawings commemorating/coping with the tragedy of 9/11. Ten years after the attack, Assouline publishers released this 72 drawing collection which depicts how children were able to endure the negative events of the terrorists’ attack and promote positive messages of growth and rebirth.

8. Literature/Poetry

9. Celan’sDeathFuge is one of the most renowned poetic responses to the Holocaust. This particular poem was constructed as a musical Fugue which allowed Celanto build upon each stanza with tone, volume and impact. Celan gives voice to all others that were imprisoned and embodied the unrelenting acceptance of those imprisoned by lamenting the habitual task of “drinking the milk.”  Furthermore, fugues were a signature piece of Johann Sebastian Bach. Choosing the typical style of a renowned high class German citizen was a way to “get back” at the oppressive Germans during the Shoah. Because Jews were not allowed to sing German songs or poetry, deliberately violated this oppressive restriction, as a demonstration of his freedom to create poetry in any form or language he deemed fit. Paul Celan’sDeathFuge: “Black milk of daybreak we drink it at evening We drink it at midday and morning we drink it at night We drink and we drink We shovel a grave in the air there you won’t lie too cramped A man lives in the house he plays with his vipers he writes He writes when it grows dark to Deutschland you golden hair Marguerite He writes it and steps out of doors and the stars are all sparkling He whistles his hounds to come close He whistles his Jews into rows has them shovel a grave in the ground He orders us strike up and play for the dance...”

11. Memorials

12. The Monument of Struggle and Martyrdom Majdanek Death Camp Lublin, Poland The two part memorial monument to commemorate those imprisoned in the death camp Majdanek was designed by Victor Tolkin and was constructed on the 25th anniversary of the camp’s liberation. The first part of the monument seen below and immediately to the left was erected at the entrance to the camp. As seen in the left, individuals walk down a steep slope and are confronted by jagged stones piercing the walkway. Halfway through this walkway, there is a gap in the rocks in which individuals can see the Polish city of Lublin which rests less than a mile from the camp. The large stone-mounted monument was designed to evoke the feeling of struggle. The second part of the Majdanek memorial can be seen in the bottom left. Upon climbing the steps and entering the dome,a large, uncovered mausoleum holds the ashes of around 80,000 victims of who perished during Operation Reinhard.

13. JanuszKorczak Memorial Warsaw, Poland This memorial commemorates JanuszKorczakwho was the director of an orphanage in Warsaw prior to the mass deportation of Jews to Treblinka. Upon being told he could walk away without being deported to his death, Janusz decided to remain with the children he cared for. He assured them and kept them docile up until his death at the death camp Treblinka. This monument in a Warsaw Cemetery commemorates his courageous act. A memorial was also erected at the Holocaust Memorial Museum of YadVashem in Jerusalem, and he is recognized as a member of the Righteous Among the Nations.