Today is a very important day for me, and for a lot of other people, too. It's the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht.
Quinn making the exposure for a negative in the Seligenstadt Jewish Cemetery.
The Story
Over the last 2 1/2 years, I've spent a lot of time researching, reading, talking to people and making photographs about this event. Specifically, I've been making portraits and photographs of sites where something sacred was destroyed or people were murdered. Over the next 2 years, I'm going to continue to do the same thing. My goal is to have a body of work (when I leave here) that will communicate the feelings, knowledge and information that I've acquired in my time here as it relates to "otherness", specifically being Jewish in Germany in the middle of the 20th century.
In a perfect world, I would have wanted to have a show hanging in a gallery today somewhere in Germany about Kristallnacht. I didn't know that was almost an impossible thing to do. Maybe next year, I'm not even sure about that though. I wondered what I could do beyond burning a candle and saying a prayer (nothing wrong with that).
Quinn photographing the two headstones that weren't destroyed on Kristallnacht.I was in Seligenstadt (it means "blessed city") last week and wanted to photograph the Friedhof (cemetery) but didn't have access. You need a key, and in order to get a key, you need to write a letter to people in Frankfurt explaining why you want access. Why all of the bureaucracy? Because this cemetery, along with the synagogue in Seligenstadt was destroyed on Kristallnacht. And, believe it or not, there are still people today that want to do bad things to these places and to these people. There's still a lot of bad feelings and hatred toward Jews here. I don't blame them for wanting to know who wants in and why. The short story is, that I wrote the letter and got access.
Friedhof - Seligenstadt, GermanySo, today, on the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht, I was in Seligenstadt making photographs inside the cemetery. I was trying to honor both the place and the people that suffered and died there. The cemetery was destroyed on 10 November. The stones were either destroyed or taken away and used in other construction projects. Some were stored in a basement just a few houses from the cemetery. The cemetery was then turned over to the horses and cows as a grazing pasture. Can you imagine? It upsets me just writing this.
As I was making images today, there was an old German man that approached me and started telling me about his experience. He was 11 years-old during Kristallnacht. He told me that "today is the 70th anniversary". I told him that's why I was there. He also told me that the perpetrators that destroyed both the cemetery and the synagogue "got away with it, they were never held accountable and they spent their lives in Seligenstadt and no one ever said anything else about it." He went on to say, "they were in church (Catholic) every Sunday just like everyone else." He was (or at least acted) upset. He said that the Germans that attacked the Jews of Seligenstadt and carried out Göbbles wishes that night/morning are all dead now. However, none of them, not one, was ever held accountable for their actions as the old German man said. They weren't SA or Nazis either (at least not in uniform). They were the (average) Germans citizens from Seligenstadt. This was the rule, not the exception, for Kristallnacht. It's simple math, there weren't enough of Hitler's (official) thugs to do all of this. To make it happen, on the scale that it did, the (average) Germans got involved. People today, tend to think that Hitler and all of his thugs marched into every little village and murdered, beat, raped, and deported all of the Jews and destroyed all of their property. The truth is much more frightening than that, a lot of times, it was their neighbors.
"Hebrew Headstone" 8"x10" Black Glass Ambrotype There was a tour guide taking a group of Germans around Seligenstadt showing them the Jewish history in the city. Until the 1930s, Jews had been in that village since the 13th century, and sometimes, in significant numbers. The Germans today in Seligenstadt are very kind and they are very open to discuss their history and the Germans role in it. They are the farthest thing from Nazis.
I got a lift when the tour guide requested that all of the men in the group have a head covering. She explained (in German and as much as I could understand) that it was to show respect for the dead and God. It was the strangest thing in the world to see a German man putting on a kippa/yarmulke. Wow! it blew my mind, I just stood there grinning.
The Photographs
The images I made today, especially the broken headstone, sum up the emotions and feelings I have about this event and this place. It's broken, that's easy enough to see. Shall we talk about it being broken? Shall we act like things are okay now? It's mysterious and complicated too. Like these images, it is a bit out of place and out of time. It's disturbing and nagging. I feel like it begs to be examined, talked about, and revealed for what it is. This is what I feel these images do for me. They act as a catalyst, a place to start discourse - something to talk about. That's all I can hope my work does. And if it does that, I've succeeded beyond my wildest dreams.
Quinn holding the wet Collodion Negative of the Hebrew Headstone. I apologize for the less than perfect reproductions here, but you can get the idea of what I did. I made three 8x10 plates today. It was raining, cold and I didn't feel 100% either. I had to do this though and I'm glad I did. I made two Black Glass Ambrotypes and one negative. As I mentioned in the last post, I'm mostly concerned with making prints. Hopefully, Tuesday, I will make prints of both of the Seligenstadt negatives. I'll post them if I do.
One more thing, there was a journalist from the Offenbach Post doing a story on me. He shot a lot of photos of me and Jan (thank you!) gave him a lot of important information about me, the project and the process. He seemed to really, really dig it. It was a lot of fun, in that context. He had me posing and holding images, my camera, etc. I'm looking forward to seeing what he does with the article. I hope to get a little more attention and maybe a show here next year - we'll see, it's a different world here.
Thank you, Jan and Summer. I couldn't have done this without your help and belief in this project. It will pay off, trust me.
Quinn processing a plate in the darkbox, Summer reading a magazine on contemporary German photography and Jan snaps this photo.
Armin Wronski (newspaper) waiting as I make an exposure.
Armin having me "pose" for a "proper" newspaper photo. No plate/plateholder, all fake!
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