LABELLED, 2020
SELECTED
In the summer of 1942, Helene Brill, a widow to Julius, a mother to Irmgard and a grandmother to Rolf, was deported to the desperately overcrowded Theresienstadt Ghetto where the conditions were appalling with unchecked hunger and disease. On 9 September 1942, the ghetto population and the daily death rate reached an all-time high. In order to reduce the numbers, the Jewish elderly were selected for a transport in accordance with the implementation of the “Final Solution” policy of the Nazis.
The Transport Bo, Train 83, from Theresienstadt ghetto to Treblinka extermination camp was announced in the Daily Orders on 19 September 1942. On the morning of the next day, each innocent prisoner scheduled for transport was ordered to pack his or her belongings, and report to the quarantine site (“Schleuse”) at the courtyard of the Aussig Barracks. There would have been about 1,622 Jewish women of German citizenship and 350 from Austria in this selection. The deportation would have included 1,318 women in the age bracket of 61-85, and Helene, aged 73, was part of this group.
Data from Yad Vashem; and testimony of Dr. Siegfried Seidl who carried out punishments against Jews in the Theresienstadt Ghetto.
In-situ in Mirror Mirror on the Wall
Photo credit: The House of Smalls
There are no photographs of Helene.
תנוח על משכבך בשלום
Rest in peace
Measurement: Miniature suitcase 6cm x 7.5cm x 3cm Label 6cm x 12cm
Process: Hand stitch, painting
Materials: Miniature suitcase (from Germany), textile, silk thread
Exhibited in:
Mirror Mirror on the Wall, The House of Smalls (House II), Online (6 November - 6 December 2021)
Fabricated? Solo Exhibition, London, England (1 October 2024 - 31 January 2025)
COMMENTS
Your tribute to my family is so very moving, it’s a memorial that will be escalated down to future generations, your amazing work will be seen and remembered by our children and our children’s children
Thank you so much for researching and producing such an important piece of work. I don’t recall Granddad ever telling me about his Grandmother. It is so important for us all to know her story, so I am really grateful that you have managed to unearth these details and memorialise such a tragic part of our family history