Shamefullythe bluefills roomswith death color,it swirlsamethyst-crystalsto paintdeath ontocanvasforgetting the blueof the seato pour deaththrough skyto take awaybreath,deceiving with themost beautifulof blues,raining deathblue.- Alice Rogoff, San Francisco, 1991Zyklon B (Prussic acid in the form of amethyst-colored crystals) was used as a killin...
Creator:
Hirschberger, Fritz, 1912-2004
Created:
1990?
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
This image is a variant of the "hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil" theme. The Catholic priest on the left has no mouth; the Rabbi in the center has no eyes; the Protestant Minister on the right has no ears. This is the artist's commentary on the indifference of the outside world toward genocide, especially by religious leadership.
Creator:
Hirschberger, Fritz, 1912-2004
Created:
1990?
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
Melting the tallow heretics,Ousting the Jews.Their thick palls floatOver the cicatrix of Poland, burnt-outGermany.They do not die.Grey birds obsess my heart,Mouth-ash, ash of eye.They settle. On the highPrecipiceThat emptied one man into spaceThe ovens glowed like heavens, incandescent.It is a heart,This holocaust I walk in,O golden child the wo...
Creator:
Hirschberger, Fritz, 1912-2004
Created:
1990?
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
On July 20, 1933 a treaty (the Concordat) was signed between the German government and the Vatican.The agreement gave Catholics the freedom of private religious practice in return for the Vatican’s recognition of the legitimacy of the Nazi government. The treaty also effectively dissolved Catholic political and trade union organizations which in...
Creator:
Hirschberger, Fritz, 1912-2004
Created:
1990?
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
"Puppets on a String" refers to the manipulation of German Jews after the rise of Hitler to power on January 30, 1933. More than 2000 laws were passed limiting the rights of Jews. Hirschberger suggests they became like puppets, unable to act with any freedom within Germany, and without sufficient possibilities to seek places of refuge.
Creator:
Hirschberger, Fritz, 1912-2004
Created:
1990?
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
Hirschberger took the first part of the title from a prayer that was part of the Roman Catholic liturgy until it was rescinded by the Second Vatican Council (1965). In 1984 a small group of Carmelite nuns established a convent at Auschwitz Concentration Camp in a building that had stored Zyklon B, the prussic acid used in the gas chambers to ext...
Creator:
Hirschberger, Fritz, 1912-2004
Created:
1990?
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
At Auschwitz/Birkenau extermination camp some of the world's finest musicians were forced to perform for the amusement of the Nazi SS guards, while their Jewish victims were tortured and gassed. Henry Meyer, Gisela Hirschberger’s (Hirschberger’s wife) cousin played the violin in one of the death camp orchestras at Auschwitz/Birkenau. He survived...
Creator:
Hirschberger, Fritz, 1912-2004
Created:
1990?
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
Hirschberger depicts a prisoner being tortured in a manner that Nazis favored. The desperation of the situation is highlighted by a need for a refuge- in the midst of the mass murder-the indifference to the suffering by the United States, which repeatedly refused refugees based on outdated immigration laws and a prevailing feeling of antisemitis...
Creator:
Hirschberger, Fritz, 1912-2004
Created:
1990?
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
