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The Vision
Adolph
Eichmann was asked at the end of World War II,
how Germans in the future could deal with the
legacy of the Holocaust. He said that there
was no problem:
"Because 100 deaths are a catastrophe...
1,000,000 deaths are a
statistic."
The goal of my art project is to represent the Holocaust in terms that
the human mind can comprehend. Through my art, the suffering is
returned to the level of the individual and, the unimaginable atrocities of
the Holocaust are, in essence, rehumanized.
I am attempting to remind my fellow humans that the Holocaust can be
understood as a catastrophe, rather than just the overwhelming,
mind-numbing statistics referred to by Eichmann. I focus on individual
people of all ages who can be seen in the grainy, blurry and frequently
torn photographs which remain from that period. By means of
three-dimensional relief and color I try to recreate some sense of the
uniqueness of each of the murder victims with their hopes and fears,
skills and talents.
Many of the young people who have seen my work ask "Did this really
happen?" They cannot believe that such barbarity occurred so
recently. It is comments like this that continue to fill me with the
passion to continue my work.
I have frequently been asked about the "halos" which encircle the heads
of the subjects of my carvings.
The bright yellow-white aura is a manifestation of the divine which
resides in all living beings. This aura is always identical, and unites
us in origin and destiny. My personal family spiritual heritage derives
from Lurianic Kaballah. I am aware that Christianity has adopted the
concept of Divine Emanation from Jewish mysticism and has employed it
extensively in the visual arts as the "halo", where it is meant to convey
the idea of holiness.
However, the idea of the emanation of light from ein sof as the source of
the Divine in each of us, remains a core concept in Jewish mystical thought.
I use my art to create memorials for the people who suffered and died in
maelstrom of Nazi bestiality. In my art, I have portrayed both Jews and
Christians with the divine spark--but not the Nazis, since they rejected
the concept of the oneness of mankind.
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The Artist
Dr. Herbert Savel
I
am a physician who has been living and practicing
medicine in a small village in the Adirondack Mountains
of New York State for over 30 years.
I am also an artist who painted a large number of
abstract canvases in the 1970's and 1980's. Over the
years, these works have been exhibited at many of
the galleries in our area.
During the 1990's, I studied woodcarving for six years
with a local German-born woodcarver who was living
in our village. I became intrigued by the artistic
possibilities of this rich, three dimensional medium.
Since that time, I have worked exclusively in wood.
In April of 2002, I began my current project, entitled
"Kaddish in Wood". This consists of an ongoing series
of painted woodcarvings, each of which is inspired
by a specific surviving Holocaust photograph.
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