present and absent, 2021
Before Adolf Hitler seized power in 1933, Europe was filled with a vibrant and well-established Jewish society. In the early days of Hitler’s dictatorship, the German authorities encouraged a surge of renaming streets (Straßen), highways (Chaussee), avenues (Alleen), etc. throughout the country to fit in with the Nazi ideals.
A 1929 street map of Berlin has been manipulated using text from many European language dictionaries. The original street names have been obscured by words from those countries where the Jewish people were once living. By 1945, two out of three European Jews had been murdered.
The loss of Jewish lives during the Holocaust: Albania: unknown. Austria: 65,459. Belgium: 24,387. Bulgaria: unknown. Czechoslovakia: 250,000. Denmark: 52 - 116. Estonia: 963. France: 72,900 - 74,000. Germany: 165,200. Greece: 58,800 - 65,000. Hungary: 297,621. Italy: 7,858. Latvia: 70,000. Lithuania: 130,000. Luxembourg: 1,200. The Netherlands: 102,000. Poland: 2,770,000 - 3,000,000. Romania: 211,214 - 260,000. Soviet Union: 1,340,000. Yugoslavia: 67,228. :LINK
Measurement: 57cm x 40cm (framed)
Process: Collage
Materials: Original 1929 street map of Berlin, used Albanian, Austrian, Belgian, Bulgarian, Czechoslovakian, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Luxembourgish, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Russian & Yugoslavian dictionaries, adhesive