Photographs of Holocaust to Be Displayed at College
Santa Monica College will inaugurate a show on the Holocaust Sept. 8 with a display of about 40 photographs by Alfred Benjamin.
Benjamin, 81, of Santa Monica, was nearly killed for photographing the Nazi destruction of a Jewish synagogue in Hamburg.
“I was interrogated by the Gestapo and told to get out of Germany within 24 hours. I left 16 hours later,” he said.
He moved to England and then to Santa Monica, where he teaches photography.
The show, which runs through Oct. 17, features black and white and color collages of Holocaust victims and perpetrators. One collage shows 93 Jewish female students from Krakow, Poland. The Nazis transported them to Warsaw, and forced them into a brothel, said Benjamin. Rather than prostitute themselves, the women smuggled arsenic into the brothel and killed themselves.
The collage depicts victims and perpetrators, with a Jewish prayer superimposed over the bottom of the artwork.
Information: (310) 452-9289.
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