Stolen Lives, Vanishing Worlds
Child Holocaust Survivors and the
Vanishing Shtetls of Eastern Europe

 The events of the WWII Holocaust and the Soviet regime that followed invariably had a complex impact on the people and the landscape of Central and Eastern Europe, and made deep marks on the children of Holocaust survivors, such as myself.

Child survivors of the Holocaust, living in the small shtetls of Eastern Europe, are entering their seventies. This aging generation of survivors, isolated from their lost ancestors and from their émigré descendents are the subject of my photographic series: Stolen Lives, Vanishing Worlds.

These photographs are testimony to the sense of stopped time that follows tragedy, but also to the naturalism and grief that still emanate from these survivors. The existence of many of these small Jewish shtetls is now nearing an end. Once the inhabitants of these small communities are gone, Jewish life will cease to exist there. It will move to larger cities where there is now a revival of Jewish life and culture.

While photographing life in these shtetls, I am also researching the revival of Jewish life in larger communities in Central and Eastern Europe, documenting the direct effects history has had on these entirely different arenas of Eastern European life.