Rosie Potter and Patricia Ayre

 

The work “Für das Kind’ was created during the years 2000 – 2003 in response to a request for a memorial that was raised by surviving Kinder at a meeting of the ‘Reunion of Kindertransports’ held in London in 1989. The Kinder felt that their experiences were underrepresented within the history of the holocaust and that as they grew older, without attaching their authentic voices to these experiences, those stories may never enter and find a place within the public domain for the benefit of future generations.

 

The original aim of the ‘Für das Kind’ project was to work collaboratively with the Kinder to assist in unravelling their experiences into a visual artwork, that would act both as a memorial and as a means of access to new audiences and to directly connect them contemporaneously to their own history, through primary, physical and authentic elements of witness and survival embedded within the work itself.

 

A series of advertisements through the Jewish press requesting the location of any original objects carried by the Kinder on their respective train journeys, and suggesting that perhaps in some way these may become part of an actual memorial, resulted in an overwhelming response.

 

The objects that arrived included; photographs, books, dolls, ice skating boots, exercise books, school reports, clothes, documents, shoe trees, bedding and a Mother’s apron. The project inspired the donation of objects that had never before been offered to a National Museum or Archive.

 

The objects belonging to each individual were placed within an original suitcase and photographed directly from above on a large format analogue camera, aiming to retain uniform perspective and scale in respect of the contents. In some instances the suitcase is quite full, in others it might contain only one photograph, this was entirely dependant upon the objects offered to the project by the individual and were not subject to any form of editing. The title, 'Für das Kind' is taken directly from a small group of objects contained within the suitcase belonging to Pauline Warner (nee Makowski), namely 3 children's coat hangers printed respectively with the words, "Für Liebe Kind", "Dem Braven Kind" and "Für das Kind"

 

Each of the 23 prints that form the exhibition shows an original suitcase containing objects carried by a child over 70 years ago, as they travelled into an unknown future.

 

Each child was allowed only one suitcase, the contents of which were severely restricted, no jewellery or valuables, no money, musical instruments or cameras. Often the trains left in the middle of the night, so there was no time for preparations or extended farewells. Parents tried to cram a lifetime of care and advice into a few moments. In many instances      the objects represent the last physical contact that a child had with either of their parents.

 

These personal family treasures, assigned to each child at a critical point in their history, are significant, not only in the context of a distinct religious background, but also as a major part of the individual's sense of his or her own particular national heritage, in terms of its geography and cultural influence.

 

The objects resonate with the collective memory of the group. They are familiar, comforting emblems of childhood, and yet they remain resolutely suspended between, 'here and there'; in ‘Family Frames: Photography, Narrative and Postmemory’ Hirsch speaks about “an uneasy oscillation between continuity and rupture”.

 

The prints are wall mounted and set in deep wooden box frames, echoing the traditional museum case. The engraved narrative, on the glass in front of the image, is in the contemporary handwriting of the individual survivor, a fragment taken from personal accounts, letters, telephone conversations and meetings with the artists.

 

A pen and an A6 white postcard were sent to each Kinder and they were asked, firstly to approve the fragment of text selected from their verbal or written testimonies and secondly to write it on the post card. The handwriting was enlarged, traced and positioned on high tack self-adhesive film that was then laid onto sheets of glass that would form part of the finished work. Each piece of text was carefully traced and hand cut out of the thin, high tack material covering the glass and then sandblasted with fine grit to produce the etching, a delicate task undertaken by ex-Royal College of Art, artist in glass, Patricia Ayre.

 

The engraved text, which is uniquely placed across and over the objects, gives rise visually to a subtle interaction of negative and positive effects, which together with the sharpened or blurred shadows cast by changing ambient light, create metaphors for memory.

 

This graffiti-like text disturbs the equilibrium of the implied 'museum', conveying the reader away from a simple contemplation of a group of historic objects towards a recognition of the centrality of those bearing direct witness to events and history.  

 

In 2013, Dr Pnina Rosenberg, lecturer and historian, featured the work ‘Für das Kind’ in an article in, ‘Prism’, an interdisciplinary journal for holocaust educators, where she wrote, “This significant manifestation of collective memory depicts the transformation and renovation of the ‘archive’ through the artists’ innovating language of memorial. They are, at the same time, monuments and family albums, private yet accessible, and thus open a dialogue and create a new artistic language that suit brilliantly the demands of the overcharged collective memory of the 21st century”