Mrs. Haruyo Nihei
March 9th, 2017Senso-Ji, Asakusa, Tokyo….
March 8th, 2017..October 2008 ..Senso-Ji, Asakusa, Tokyo..
From Above, Kleines Haus Theatre, Dresden
March 6th, 2017..February 2017.. ..Dresden..
Dresden firebombing survivors Nora Lang and Anita John in front of their portrait at the From Above exhibition in the Kleines Haus Theatre.
Mrs. Lang and Mrs. John grew up on the same street and have been friends from childhood. Both escaped death during the Dresden firebombings on February 13th, 1945.
From Above was shown as a part of the commemoration program in Dresden. The exhibition featured portraits of firebombing survivors from Dresden, Coventry (UK), Tokyo, Wielun (Poland) and Rotterdam (Netherlands). It was an honor once again to bring the exhibition back to Dresden.
Stolpersteine for Emil Hochberg
February 27th, 2017Stolpersteine for Emil Hochberg
..February 2017.. ..Laubegast, Dresden..
Was walking along the Elbe retracing the long journeys that Victor Klemperer’s wife made from Dresden to Pirna because they wore the Jewish star and were not allowed to ride the tram or train.
The walk along the Elbe through Laubegast towards Pillnitz is my favorite. I can’t find the words to describe how the light and sound that comes off the river affect me.
I was walking with my head down and out of the corner of my eye caught the dull grey color of a Stolpersteine (stumbling stone) which I had never seen before. I have walked along the Kleinzschachwitz Ufer many times but never saw this Stolpersteine. A Stolpersteine is a small metal plate laid into the ground of the former residencies where Jewish families lived before they were deported. You have to be looking on the ground to find them because they blend into the ground.
This Stolpersteine was of a man name Emil Hochberg who was born in 1874, deported in 1943 and died in Auschwitz on August 28th, 1943. Most of the families living in Dresden had already been deported by 1943. When I researched I found that he had a non-Jewish wife, which might have spared the family a little bit more time since it was considered a mixed marriage. His wife survived the camps but there is no published information about her after the war.
There are around 20 Stolpersteine in Laubegast but this was the first I stumbled upon.
Fragile
February 25th, 2017..February 2017.. ..Staré Mêsto, Prague..
From Hell..How can a place with such grandiose cathedrals also be home to so many people sleeping on the streets?
Is this what my teacher meant by irony? Or what he meant by hypocrisy? I always get the two confused.
Fragile
February 23rd, 2017
Fragile
February 21st, 2017
Fragile
February 19th, 2017
Dresden
February 13th, 2017..Dresden..
“In the middle of the night my mother came into the bedroom and shook me in a way like never before. Our suitcases were already packed and we frantically ran down to the cellar. A neighbor heard on the radio that a large formation of bombers was on its way. My mother was shaking because the air raid sirens sounded a full alarm. It was like having cold bucket of water poured down my body.” -Katarina Brünnel
The banks of the Elbe with Dresden in the background. On the night of February 13th, 1945 the baroque city of Dresden was pummeled by three waves of Allied firebombings.
The city burnt to ash for weeks. Dresden, once known as “Florence on the Elbe”, sat as a pile of debris for many years and is still being rebuilt.
Fragile
February 5th, 2017