worst case scenario, 2022

Looking through the window into the life of a Jewish family in Nazi Germany in the 1930s.

When Adolf Hitler was appointed the German chancellor on 30 January 1933, the Nazis began to intimidate and persecute the Jewish people in Germany. They were subjected to more than four hundred decrees restricting all aspects of their private and working lives. New regulations excluded teaching and studying in universities, and civil servants were removed from Government services. Vets were expelled from the veterinary profession, and all midwives were banned from practicing their occupation. Actors were prohibited from performing on the stage or screen, and businesses became the property of the state with no redress. All those involved in the fields of journalism, art, literature, music, theatre and broadcasting were banned from their roles.

There was a ban on subscribing to magazines, buying flowers, visiting art galleries, owning a telephone, a camera, binoculars or a typewriter, and it was forbidden to keep dogs, cats or birds as pets.

I discovered that the Nazi revolution had abolished the old distinction between politics and private life, and that it was quite impossible to treat it merely as a ‘political event’. It took place not only in the sphere of politics, but also in each individual private life; it seeped through the walls like a poison gas. If you wanted to evade the gas there was only one option: to remove yourself physically - emigration. Emigration: that meant saying goodbye to the country of one’s birth, language and education and severing all patriotic ties. Summer 1933, Berlin, Germany.

Sebastian Haffner, Defying Hitler, A Memoir, began in exile in England, early in 1938.

An open letter sits on the bureau, the recipient has been dismissed from his position at the university.

The passports, train tickets and luggage labels are ready in preparation in case they have to leave…

The suitcase is ready and packed….

The shelves are filled with miniature replicas of books. The originals were burned on huge pyres by Nazi-led student groups in May 1933 in thirty-four university towns and cities throughout Germany. Intolerance, hate and bigotry prevailed, with books selected because of the author’s religion or politics, and if they were deemed dangerous, or ‘un-German’.

View through front window of the study of a café owned by a Jewish proprietor. The frontage has been vandalised and covered with antisemitic graffiti.

One of two windows with miniature curtains hand stitched with excerpts from Victor Klemperer’s book ‘I Shall Bear Witness, The Diaries 1933-1941’. The diaries were written at the time, and would have led to his death if they had been found.

Measurement: 54cm x 32cm x 30cm - 1/12th scale

Process: Hand stitch, book making, collecting

Materials: Box room, miniature accessories, textiles, silk thread, paper, paint

COMMENTS

  • Oh, the suitcase…it twists my heart. May we never, ever forget

  • The attention to detail is incredible

  • Amazing work

  • So moving and atmospheric. A masterpiece!

  • Oh my goodness! The detail. What an amazing and thought provoking piece of work

  • Every time I see your work, I’m blown away by the attention to detail and placement. This is amazing

  • Part of our family history too. So poignant. Your pieces tell the story so well. Thank you

  • Oh lordy! Another beautiful moving piece of work

  • These rooms could so easily have been our family in Europe in the 1930s. It breaks my heart to know how many were lost

  • Such an amazing piece. So beautiful and intricate

  • Wow! What work

  • This whole project is epic, as always

  • Your work is just amazing. Absolutely astonishing

  • Just incredible work

  • This is another amazing, heartbreaking piece. Your attention to detail is fantastic

  • You must have ploughed in masses of research/planning for this piece

  • Your work is astonishing. So much detail. I love how the dolls house perspective is akin to memories held in the minds eye