And I Still See Their Faces...

Golda Tencer wrote:
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In 1994 the Shalom Foundation made an appeal asking the public to send photographs of Polish Jews. I remember the day I spoke about that project for the first time, showing a few pictures from my mother's family album.

Many people did not believe that anybody would respond to our appeal 50 years after the Holocaust. To date we received over 9000 of these photographs.

It happens that all that remains of a person's life is a single moment captured in a photograph. It can happen to individuals. But what can o­ne say when all that remains of an entire people, several million strong, is what survived in snapshots - the outline of figures, the shadow of homes, a trace of laughter silenced long ago. And faces - a wealth of faces. The photos we gathered were not copied from first pages of newspapers. They were hidden in attics, found in rubbles, saved from recycling bins.

They were sent in from the furthest reaches of the planet, from large cities and from little villages forgotten by God and people, where today o­nly the wind remembers the names of those who are gone forever.

The photographs were sent mostly by Poles - Polish families, neighbors, and friends.

The eldest contributor of the photographs is ninety years old; the youngest, twelve. "Not o­nly those who save a life should be deemed righteous. Those who save memory also deserve such designation". Looking at these old photos, we suddenly see ourselves. We rediscover our own history, interrupted like a scream. What are these photographs, really? They are a prayer - Kaddish, recited by the living to honor the dead, who are still following us o­n all the roads of the world.

The publishing of the album and the exhibition convinced me that all these photographs should find their permanent place in an exhibition. This will be the Jewish Cultural Center, which the Foundation will build at the Grzybowski Square. The creation of the Center is the greatest challenge before us today. We are inspired by the hope that both the past and the present will find their home there.

Golda Tencer - author of the project
www.shalom.org.pl/eng/index.php?mid=4

The exhibition "And I still See Their Faces" has already been shown by the Shalom Foundation in many countries all over the world.

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In 2011 the exibition was shown at the synagogue of Tykocin.

It is perhaps possible to buy the album here:
www.shalom.org.pl/eng/index.php?mid=7

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