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North Park Alum Documents "Disappearing" Jewish Sites in Poland
CHICAGO, IL (April 18, 2005) - A North Park University alum who has worked
with Steven Spielberg on his video history of the Holocaust is now
involved in a project to help photograph what remains of disappearing
Jewish sites in Poland.
Sara Akerlund is researching sites for a book of photography by Carol
M. Highsmith to be titled Before Our Eyes: Disappearing Images of
Jewish Civilization in Poland. The United States Library of
Congress, which is co-publishing the book, has called Highsmith "one of
America's preeminent photographers."
Akerlund is a graduate of Minnehaha Academy in Minneapolis, Minnesota,
and attended North Park from 1961 to 1963. She returned to the
university in February to speak to students about her latest project.
The book focuses on the everyday lives of Jews, says Akerlund. She
hopes that it will show the once flourishing Jewish community in
Poland, because that part of the story often is not told. People have
seen the pictures of the concentration camp at Auschwitz, she says, but
other sites need to be documented while they still exist, so that they
will not be forgotten.
Akerlund has made numerous trips to Poland since 1990 to locate and
research endangered sites. "It's changing every time I go over there,"
she says. "They are being covered up or removed."
In 1939, there were 3.5 million Jews living in Poland, Akerlund says.
Eighty-five percent of them were killed in the Holocaust. By 1980, only
5,000 Jews remained. In the process, much of what marked Jewish
civilization was destroyed. Many communities that once were entirely
populated by Jews now have none living there. This month marks the
sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and other Nazi
concentration camps.
As Poland becomes more involved with the European Union, it is moving
to erase some of its past, including many traces of the Nazi
occupation, Akerlund says. Part of that past literally is being covered
up as cobblestone roads that were made with Jewish headstones are being
paved over.
During WWII, the Nazis forced Jews to remove the headstones from family
members' graves, and those stones were smashed and used in the roads.
Akerlund says that only one such road remains.
Shells of many temples and other buildings still stand as testament to
the attempt to eliminate an entire race of people, and Akerlund hopes
that the photographs will capture a sense of their former glory. "To
show their majesty, that's what I hope the photos will do," she says.
"I guess that's what these images do," Akerlund says. "They show that
it was such a beautiful, lively place. The synagogues and the markets -
and they're just gone."
Though Akerlund saw signs of anti-Semitism in Poland, she also met many
people who were quick to be helpful. One farmer, who had witnessed a
massacre of Jews, led Akerlund to a cemetery that was hidden in the
woods.
Childhood friendships with Jews have spurred her historical interest,
Akerlund says. "I grew up in Minneapolis and had a lot of Jewish
friends."
For five years, Akerlund conducted interviews and did research for
Spielberg's Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation
(www.vhf.org), which preserves the testimonies of Holocaust survivors
and witnesses on videotape. She joined the project after answering an
advertisement for people to help interview survivors and do other
research. Getting the job included being interviewed by Spielberg and
training sessions on how to talk with survivors.
The opportunity to interview survivors has been a privilege, Akerlund
says
"It was soul searching. It was very emotional," she explains. "It was
about establishing some wonderful friendships. You have to establish
some warmth between you before they are gong to open up their life
stories."
Many of the people had never told their stories to anyone, Akerlund
says. Other survivors said they could never return to Poland. A man
named Phillip whom she befriended, said he would have loved to go back
to his home," Akerlund says, "but there was no way he would go back
because of his fear."
Akerlund marvels at the way survivors have been able to go on with
their lives despite their experiences in the camps or hiding in attics
and even dugout holes in the ground for years.
"There's such strength," Akerlund says. "To many survivors, rather than
speaking from anger, at this point there just seems to be a 'get on
with your life' attitude."
Photographs of the Polish sites will not only be used in the book, but
also will be given copyright free to the Library of Congress, which is
assuming the cost for printing "Before Our Eyes." The images also will
be displayed on the library's internet site.
Akerlund hopes that the images will not only recall the past but make
possible new relations for the future. The Jewish Anti-Defamation
League (www.adl.org) will use the images to educate the thousands of
students they bring to Poland each year to better understand their
roots. All royalties from the book sales will go directly to the
Polish-American-Jewish Alliance for Youth Understanding (PAJA), a
not-for-profit educational organization dedicated to improving
relations between Jewish and Christian youth in the United States and
Poland.
Akerlund says roughly $90,000 still needs to be raised to pay for the
project to be completed. The Anti-Defamation League will provide the
financial administration of the fundraising.
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