Absence and Loss: Holocaust Memorials in Berlin and Beyond by Marion Davies
Photographer Marion Davies has focused her lens on the remarkable numbers of Holocaust memorials in Berlin; on the sculptures, art instillations, and unusual plaques and signs that can be found in public places - on street corners, walls and pavements; in market places or on railway lines. Juxtaposing images and text, Davies reveals the destructive impact of the Nazis on the daily life of German Jews and other minorities and the void left in post-war Germany by their annihilation and emigration. The images run in historical sequence; charting Jewish achievement, the rise of the Nazis, the subsequent destruction of Jews and others and includes portraits and memorials of rescuers and survivors. Absence and Loss will be shown at exhibitions throughout the UK and abroad including Norwich Cathedral and the Goethe Institute, Johannesburg. It is set to become a valued resource in Holocaust education. A remarkable photographic essay on Germany's dialogue with the loss and absence of its once thriving Jewish community. - Dr James Smith.