THE HOLOCAUST

I learned about the Holocaust in my childhood. Both of my parents had lost family members during the War. I was surprised to learn that none of my classmates – and, later, my fellow students at the faculty – knew about the destruction of European Jewry.

I decided that I absolutely had to address this subject in my work. For my graduate project (sketches of decorations), I chose V. Korostylov's play The Warsaw Bell, which depicted the last days in Janusz Korczak's life. In the play, we see Korczak trying to entertain the doomed children, taking their minds off the impending deportation and death.

In the course of the play, the power of Korczak's imagination brings the toys to life, and they begin to play with the children. I created a corridor with rather dingy walls that are hung with children's drawings.

In the first sketch, the paintings leap off the wall, which has turned into a frame, and begin to amuse the children. In the second sketch, the frame assumes a horizontal position and turns into the gate of the death camp, which cuts the children off from the world they used to know. On the third sketch, the frame disappears, and the children march off along the corridor...