Visualize this — you, as a young 12 year old, are part of a loving family; going to school, playing with your friends and living a normal life. And then your world crumbles as you are separated from your family forever, and moved to a concentration camp only because you are a Jew.
Meet the children of Terezin – one of Hitler’s death chambers. Their plight is captured in a series of drawings done by these kids, as they struggled to make sense of their collapsing world.
Images capture the gamut of their young lives — their life before deportation, their transportation to the “ghetto”, and the topography of Terezin. Drawings shed light on their everyday life in the ghetto, their living quarters and their memories of home. The drawings that pierce the heart are their renditions of fairy tales of good and evil and their final journey to darkness and death.
The pictures are haunting and tell the story of their pain and suffering, their broken hearts, their shattered dreams, and their ultimate demise. A number of them are dark, and black, in color and impact. Their turmoil and suffering captured on paper, like no words ever could.
My tears flowed freely as I ached for their loss, and the images deeply effected my psyche. Later this week, I tour the concentration camp at Auchwitz. I am already bracing myself for the pain of that experience.
We live in such a cruel world, and experiences such as these shake one’s faith in humanity. Besides, they help crystallize what is really important in one’s own life.
About Hemant Rustogi