Essen, 21 January 2020: "Survivors. Faces of Life after the Holocaust" is the title of a new photo exhibition in Essen's Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex. It features portraits of 75 Jewish Holocaust survivors. Chancellor Angela Merkel attended the official opening.
During her speech Angela Merkel expressed her eternal gratitude to the survivors for their readiness to be photographed for the project and for their strength to keep memories alive.
The 87-year-old Naftali Fürst from Tel Aviv, who was a prisoner in several concentration camps, was one of the survivors who came to Essen.
As well as Naftali Fürst , Martin Schoeller (51) took portrait photos of another 74 men and women last June in Jerusalem. All of them live in Israel.
The photo project was designed to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camp in Auschwitz. The remembrance project is being realised jointly by the Bonn Foundation for Art and Culture and Israel's Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center.
"Every portrait is a warning to us, that tells of the need to stand up for humanity, not to look away and remain silent if someone else is attacked or humiliated, or if their human dignity is violated," said the Chancellor at the opening.