DOWN THE LINE, 2020
Selected for The Vlieseline Fine Art Textiles exhibition 2020 - UK
Shortlisted
Down the family line
Down the line from when Hitler came to power, and its effects
Down the line – the train tracks into Auschwitz
‘Down The Line’ examines the close family of one Jewish man, Richard Kann, a lawyer, who committed suicide in Berlin, Germany, on 6 December 1942, one day after his wife Susanne’s life ended in the same way. Richard was 68 and Susanne 57.
‘The Berlin Jewish suicide rate reached its climax in the third quarter of 1942 amidst a wave of deportations when 481 out of a total of 669 suicides were Jewish, which means that 75 percent of suicides were Jewish’.[i]
Richard’s sister Mathilde Hedwig Baar, along with her husband August and son, had been living in The Netherlands. It is known that Mathilde and her son, Dr August Baar junior, were transported to Auschwitz concentration camp, Poland. Mathilde was murdered on 11 December 1942, and August junior on 12 February 1943. The fate of August Baar senior is unknown.
It is more than likely that Richard knew of his sister’s transportation to Auschwitz; and most probably he and Susanne had received notification of their own transportation to the death camp.
Two of the Kanns’ three children escaped from Nazi persecution, most likely in the 1930s, as ‘few Jews left in Germany after 1938 were young.’[ii] The fate of their second daughter is unknown.
Like millions of other Jewish people, the lives of the Kanns were changed irrevocably when Hitler came to power. They lost their rights, their homes, their families, their livelihoods, their dignity, their freedom, and finally their lives because they were Jewish.
[i] Suicide in Nazi Germany, Christian Goeschel, Oxford University Press, UK, 2009
[ii] Ibid
In-situ at The Knitting & Stitching Show, London
Thousands upon thousands of glasses belonging to Holocaust victims in Auschwitz Death Camp
Measurement: 28cm x 32cm x 6cm
Process: Hand stitch, digital printing
Materials: Cotton, silk threads, vintage spectacles circa 1930s, vintage ophthalmic lenses
Exhibited in:
The Vlieseline Fine Art Textiles Award Gallery 2020, Festival of Quilts, NEC, Birmingham (29 July - 1 August 2021)
The Vlieseline Fine Art Textiles Award Gallery 2020, The Knitting & Stitching Show, Alexandra Palace, London (7-10 October 2021)
Fabricated? Solo Exhibition, London, England (1 October 2024 - 31 January 2025)
COMMENTS
Incredible but heartbreaking
May their memories be blessed
This is amazing, relevant and poignant
Gratitude to you for being their voice and a reminder
So powerful and such a beautiful thing to do in memory
Your work is so moving
Such sensitive but powerful work
I’ve seen a pile of glasses in the concentration camp Mauthausen, Austria. Gives me the goosebumps still thinking about it
The everyday things left behind can be the most poignant
So moving and tender, looking forward to seeing it
It’s great that you can bring this amazing and important art to more people
Great that this powerful work will be shown
Such very articulate work
I find your work is so very moving
So important to keep the story alive