belfer

The cry of the artist

We are living in the century of genocide. The legal concept of genocide had to be invented in order to characterize indescribable destruction, the murder of millions, and the butchering of whole nations in our century. The Nurenberg Trials had to come about in order to deal with the plans to destroy nations such as Armenians, Jews, and the Slavic people by the "Master Race" during World War II.

There are still people among us today who carry with them associations with psychopathological content, subjective memories of those days. For these people, the Holocaust is a trauma which is being acted on in diverse form. There are those who try to shy away from any memory or symbol which might arouse memories, because each memory brings horrible nightmares. There are others who are pushed back to the past, look for it, because they will need the experience of catharsis to the end of their days. The latter are especially sensitive to any "normalization", the aim of which is to forget.

This is only one side of the issue, the subjective psychological side of the Holocaust generation. But the Holocaust has another side which is beyond time and place - the national-historic aspect. This side must be foremost in the minds of educators, and they must rediscover it anew each time so that they may include this chapter in their work with the young.

The historical importance may be given a very simple explanation. One must remember and know that what seems to be unreal and impossible to achieve by man against man, is possible in reality. It happend in the past and may happened again in the future, among mankind in general, and against the Jewish people in particular.

In the coming years, the burning question will cease to be the "problem of the German nation". and may well turn out to be the "problem" of another nation. We, the educators, are searching and groping for a reminder, looking for danger signs, a warning, that will enable us to teach, to impress, to awaken and to educate, to revive and remind!

An album of paintings and artistic drawings by the artist Itzchak Belfer, "The Holocaust", has recently been published. In it, we have found one of the strongest artistic impressions that help us achieve our goal. In the album, man cries out against destruction. Annihilation! The paintings and drawings deal with many subjects which we cannot address here, but still, I wish to mention some of them:

The canvas "Fear" - its meaning is quite clear. There is no praise of fear which calls for caution in its meaning in the book of Proverbs. "Blessed be the man who is forever fearful". Rather, it has the connotations of fear as expressed in Deuteronomy: "Let your life hang before you and you shall fear day and night".

Or the canvas "In the Darkness", which expresses the greatest collective horror from the danger of death.

The hopeless cry of people and children who are in the depths of despair can be heard, while only the last remnants of light play on the faces that beg for mercy.

Or the canvas "Lost Hope", where the hope for Good dies and the chance to be together, wife and husband, child and father, parents and children, is destroyed.

Or the canvas "Escape", which poignantly expresses the power of a woman, the courage of a mother - only she can draw on her last strength to carry the fallen, the loved one, the lonely, on her shoulders and drag them away from the awful darkness.

Or the canvas "Orphans", which cries out that wars make orphans of thousands of children. But the Holocaust was a fate that forced them to stand together, because if they did not cleave to each other, one orphan to another, they could not withstand the awful loneliness. They are four, they are five, leaning on one another, and their eyes cry for help.

Or the canvas "The Exile" whose universal theme is recognized in every generation. Where are they marching? Who are the unknown? When did they go? Who drove them away? What will be their fate when the horizon is so bleak?

Or "Before the End" with its terrible question: does a man have face before the end?

These are but a few of the canvases whose content is close to the heart of the Spaniard, Goya, or of Keta Kolvitz in the First World war, and other painters sensitive to the fate of man. Each one and his generation, Each one and his special way of expression. In this respect, Itzhak Belfer's album is universal. But in the album before us there is another side, closer to us in its essence, because it deals directly with the destruction of the Jewish people during World War II.

There is another question here that is tied with the subject. During our visit to Sweden, educators in that country criticized their Israeli counterparts. "Try to forget the horrible past of your people. Do not continue to hurt your young generation with memories in writing, art and speech. Your children who live in your country wish to live in the present - and this is a healthy sign. Do not drag them into the past, because by doing so, you place a shadow over the light of the present." And the psychiatrists added, "You are planting fear and cultivating neurosis. The fear of death ( descriptions of gas chambers and the process of annihilation) makes for a personality that rejects spontaneous behavior and oppresses creativity." The psycho-pedagogic experience confirms that the natural inclination of the soul is to maintain its balance, and the terms "Holocaust" and "genocide" are far from our children. They are unable to sense their meaning, as one of the educators explained, "I know that 'Holocaust' is a cruel word. but six million... they cannot comprehend it..."Therefore, there is no danger to their souls. Of course, if we give them the correct socioeconomic- and cultural circumstances the national-historic call demands of us that we find the correct ways to explain this horrible chapter in the life of our nation. There is little hope in mass meetings and in an abundance of words to evoke the tragedy of this episode in the "generation of victories". Therefore, let us try to do it through the subjective visual art of the artist.

Itzchak Belfer lived through the cruel generation of the Holocaust. He was orphaned in childhood and grew up in an orphanage run by Janusz Korczak in Warsaw. He suffered hunger during the Second World War, was forced to wander seeking protection and survival; he personally experienced what it meant to be a Jew in those days. But what sets him apart is his ability for plastic expression, and in the harshest way (drawings in black and white) he succeeded in uncovering his emotional world, which is the inner world of many.

In the canvases " The Deportation", "The Ghetto", "The Persecuted", "Shma Israel", "The Children of Janusz Korczak", "Janusz Korczak", "Despair", "Destruction of the Ghetto", "The Cold", "In the Wagon of Death", and many others in the album, he has a way of expressing associations by highlighting the main objective; there is an emotional expression that is capable of arousing the feelings of the viewer.

Itzchak Belfer's album is an artistic expression of the strongest force, and many young people (especially the sensitive ones) will be "influenced" by its message that one must learn the causes of this tragic event in the live of our people. Thus, it is our duty to bring this message to every school and library, so that it will be readily available to educators and students alike.

Yosef Arnon