Metro

Yom HaShoah

Survivor's art memorializes children of the Holocaust.

Keri Guten Cohen
Story Development Editor

M

iriam Brysk of Ann Arbor
was 4 and living in her native
Warsaw when World War II
started and forever changed her life. A
child of the Holocaust, Brysk cannot forget
her experiences; nor does she want to.
Instead, she express-
es her thoughts and
feelings through art.
Her newest work,
"Children of the
Holocaust:' can be
seen in the audito-
rium of the Holocaust
Memorial Center in
Farmington Hills
through June. The
Miriam Brysk
emotional work is a
fitting tribute as Jews
worldwide mark Yom HaShoah (Holocaust
Memorial Day) on May 2.
"Children of the Holocaust" features
a series of symbolic tallisim (prayer
shawls), complete with tzitzit Brysk knot-
ted herself. Each tallis is a blend of photos
that include present-day memorials now
standing where Nazi killing machines
operated, haunting images of actual chil-
dren and historic photos of thee sites
during the war. Text at the bottom gives
information about the children and about
the killinggoing on around them.
"I have recently published my memoir,
Amidst the Shadows of Trees," Brysk said.
"Dealing with the pain and emotions of
my own childhood experiences led me to
consider the plight of the 1.5 million Jewish
children who had not survived. I thought of
their disrupted rites of passage as beloved
sons and daughters of extended Jewish
families and their ultimate and untimely
deaths in Nazi-designated killing places.
"The idea for a new art series began to
emerge; I would focus on depicting the
children who died, in the context of what
they are likely to have experienced.
"One of the rites of passage from child-
hood to adulthood is the bar/bat mitzvah
at age 13:' she said. "At that event, children
traditionally receive tallis from their par-
ents. Most of the Jewish children who died
in the Holocaust, however, were too young
to ever have had a bar mitzvah, or to ever
have worn a tallis. I, therefore, used the
imagery of the tallis to frame each piece.
Each child is contained within his own

4111111=111

AMMISNIal

Odette from Brysk's "Children of the Holocaust" series

tallis, the one he never received, as a gift of
remembrance from me:'
Brysk, 73, is a self-taught artist who
uses tools she knows best — the com-
puter and photographs.
"I'm Grandma Miriam, not Grandma
Moses:' she says of her modern bent. "I
know how to manipulate the digital art,
and I have always loved photography. I
combined them in my need to express my
thoughts of the Holocaust."
She learned how to accomplish large
Xerox transfers with toners and solvents,
and to add multiple layers of color and
images in a way that brings the people
alive in her work.

All images of the children come from
authentic photographs of Holocaust vic-
tims; 10 of the children's photos came
from survivors who asked her to preserve
through art the memory of their relatives
who perished. Others came from books or
the Internet.
The children depicted in Odette and
Ralfhave Detroit ties. Born in Paris and
interned in Auschwitz, Odette was the
cousin of local child survivor Giselle
Feldman. Ralf was born in Amsterdam;
he and his parents were killed at Sobibor.
He is the cousin of child survivor Esther
Posner of Southfield.

Holocaust Childhood
Brysk's own Holocaust story is unusual.
After Warsaw fell to the Nazis, she and her
parents, Bronka and Chaim Miasnki, left
for Lida in Soviet-occupied Belarus. When
Lida fell, they were herded into a ghetto. In
Russia, most of the Jews were simply shot.
In one day, Brysk says, 80 percent of the
ghetto was liquidated that way.
Her father was a much-needed surgeon.
Partisans rescued them from the ghetto and
took them into the forest, where her father
ran a partisans hospital. He earned the Order
of Lenin for his work after liberation.
Brysk remembers having her head
shaved and dressing in boys' clothes to
protect her from being raped. At 8, she
was given a pistol, which she proudly wore
by her side.
The family moved to Brooklyn when she
was 12. In America, she says, she was able
to live out her dreams. A book about the
exhilaration of discovering things led her to
become a scientist specializing in dermatol-
ogy, microbiology and microchemistry. She
set up the laboratory at the medical school
of the University of Texas at Galveston and
worked there for many years.
She also dreamed of going to museums
and one day expressing herself through
art. Now three of her pieces have been
added to the permanent collection at
Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, and her work
has been exhibited across the country in
Holocaust museums, municipal art centers
and at Jewish community centers.
Brysk, 73, is married to Henry, a survi-
vor from France. They have two daughters
and five grandchildren.
As a survivor, she is very involved in
speaking to groups about her Holocaust
experience. In September, at Judge Edward
Sosnick's request, she will address 400 stu-
dents at the Oakland County Courthouse
in Pontiac.
"I bring in a few pieces of my art, and I
emphasize that I was.able to overcome my
handicaps and have a successful life she
says. "I teach about the Holocaust, but it's
also about empowerment." ❑

For Yizkor Day details, see page A14.

"Children of the Holocaust" will
run through June in the audito-
rium of the Holocaust Memorial
Center, 28123 Orchard Lake Road,
Farmington Hills. (248) 553-2400.

May 1 2008

A13