An exhibit of 40 black and white portraits line the gallery walls at ArtStart.
Each is the face of a person who survived the Holocaust.
“We try to keep the memories of the people who were survivors as they are and as they were,” said Jerry Kaye, the chair of the Holocaust Memory Project based in Chicago called Zachor, the Hebrew word for memory.
Alongside every photo is a narrative from the person photographed.
“There are three of us in the organization, and every time we photograph somebody, and every time we hear their narrative, we feel it in our hearts, and we know that this is something that counts,” said Kaye.
Some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe were killed between 1941 and 1945.
Now there are roughly 200,000 survivors still living.
Kaye hopes people who visit the exhibit carry and share their memories.
“It will be important for you to tell the story of what you found here to somebody else,” said Kaye.
He says the exhibit is especially important as there are people that push the false narrative that the Holocaust never happened or know next to nothing about it.
Kaye also believes the timing of it is significant because of the rise in antisemitism in the country.
He hopes the exhibit it will inspire people to be more understanding of people that may be different from themselves.
“The Holocaust wasn't just assassinating Jews. There were all kinds of people who were killed by the Nazis in that period of time: people who were gay, people who were of different religions, different faith, different all kinds of things,” said Kaye. “Today, when you see somebody who's different from you, we want you to think back to what you saw here and make sure that you don't turn that person into something negative, but rather that you feel that there's a way you can help.”
The exhibition at ArtStart is on display now through August 9th.
The gallery is open Thursday through Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Kaye said they’re always looking for more survivors to photograph and places to host the traveling exhibit. You can learn more on the Zachor Project website.
