ITW Special Exhibition Gallery feat. Stories of Survival: Object. Image. Memory

Experience360
Ongoing Exhibition

WHEN YOU’VE LOST EVERYTHING, A SINGLE OBJECT CAN TAKE ON EXTRAORDINARY MEANING.

Stories of Survival is a landmark exhibit that showcases more than 60 personal artifacts brought to America by Survivors of the Holocaust and other genocides. Exploring the relationship between objects, their meaning to the original owner and subsequent significance, each artifact is dramatically paired with oversized photographs by renowned documentarian Jim Lommasson with handwritten responses by Survivors or their family members.

The objects featured in Stories of Survival are as everyday as a baby doll and a black suitcase and as symbolic as a young mother’s cook-book and a wedding announcement, as saved by Survivors from genocides around the world, including Armenia, Bosnia, Cambodia, Iraq, Rwanda, South Sudan, and Syria.

The objects in this exhibition have traveled the world, sometimes seeing great tragedy, having narrow escapes, and representing fragments of home, love, family, and identity. They are a reflection of their owners’ journeys and family histories. And though the objects and memories start from very different origins, from Germany to Belgium to Armenia to Syria, common threads bind them all together. These are the threads that bind us all, the common story of moving to a new land, building a new life, yet holding on to the past. We are all connected to these stories; we have them in our own families. They are the commonality of an immigrant experience, an American experience.

About the Photographer

Ursula Meyer’s Childhood teddy bear retrieved after surviving the Holocaust in Theresienstadt. Many family items had been saved by neighbors, including the bear, which Max and Ursula Meyer then retrieved after returning to Bremen, Germany in 1945.
White cardigan worn by Raissa Umutoni when she was murdered in the Rwandan Genocide on June 12, 1994 and was uncovered in a mass grave in January 2017. On loan, courtesy of Immaculee Mukantaganira.
Concentration camp, uniform jacket and pants worn by Stone, Henry (Henryk Steinlauf); Flossenburg/ Dachau, Germany- 1945. It has a pink triangle featuring the letter ‘P’; and his number ‘47849’.
Purple, velvet, Ottoman bath wrappers (Bohça) from Banderma, Ottoman Empire, late 19th century, brought to the United States by sisters Mariam Balian (née Kibarian) and Elizabeth Knekleian (née Kibarian) in 1921 after escaping the Armenian Genocide. On loan, courtesy of Greg Bedian.
Marklin train set which belonged to Ralph Rehbock dated 1938- Germany. The lot consists of train cars, tracks, and train set accessories.
Digital photograph of Diyar Al Khalo praying at the Lalish Temple, a sacred shrine of the Yazidis, in Iraq, February 11, 2013. On loan, courtesy of Diyar Al Khalo.

Photo credits: Jim Lommasson, Nicole Wong

loading

Keep In Touch

Newsletter

This site uses cookies to offer you a better browsing experience. If you continue using our website, we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies on this website and you agree to our Privacy Policy.

Dismiss