When as a teenager, I found out about the Holocaust and the death of relatives, I wrote the following poem:
Aunts, uncles, cousins, some old many young
Fuel for the smokestacks belching death.
I never saw them, nor shall I never.
I retired after practicing law for over 50 years. and became interested in sculpting, during the course of which, I recalled the poem I had written as a teenager. I gave thought to determine if there was any way my poem could be made into a sculpture. I Then decided to begin to work on a sculpture. not knowing it would it embrace the meaning of my poem.
I worked on the piece for almost one year, and much to my amateurish surprise, the completed piece turned out so professional it has been exhibited in an American Medallic Sculpture Exhibit and in both The Harriet and Kenneth Holocaust Resource Center and Archives on the premises of Queensborough Community College in Bayside, Queens, New York and The Holocaust Memorial and Educational Center of Nassau County. .
The piece itself depicts a woman wearing a babushka commonly worn by women in small Eastern European villages. She is clothed in rags with the Star of David on her clothing. On her right side there is a large Star of David with the word Jude, the Nazi word for Jew. The piece has areas that depict the stones of the Jerusalem wailing wall and represents the survival of Judaism. Inscribed in the piece is my poem. When one looks at my sculpture, it appears the women is looking at the viewer and speaking, perhaps reciting the poem.
I called the piece MIshpoceh, the Yiddish word for relatives. I did not call it My Mishpoceh, because I intended all who looked at it, could relate to it as their own Holocaust relatives, be they Jewish, other religions, mentally and physically impaired persons, gay people and those politically opposed to the Nazis.
Attached is a photograph of the sculpture. I hope the sensitivity of it confronts the ugliness of the Holocaust.
Ben Haber
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