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Photos of the exhibit.\u00a0EMMANOUEL SOFILLAS \/ THE QUADRANGLE\u00a0<\/p>\n
Emmanouel Sofillas, Asst. Sports Editor\u00a0<\/p>\n
A new art exhibit at the entrance of O\u2019Malley Library is bringing a largely unknown chapter of Holocaust history to the Manhattan University (MU) campus, featuring over 20 graphic sketches by Marcel Roux, a member of the French Resistance who was imprisoned in concentration camps during World War II.<\/p>\n
The exhibit, titled \u201cLost Stories of the Holocaust,\u201d was curated by Mehnaz Afridi, Ph.D., director of the Holocaust, Genocide and Interfaith Education Center at MU. It opened March 24 and will remain on display through April 17.<\/p>\n
Photos of the exhibit.\u00a0
EMMANOUEL SOFILLAS \/ THE QUADRANGLE\u00a0<\/p>\n
The story behind the sketches is as remarkable as the artwork itself. Helene Orce and her husband discovered the drawings preserved in a satchel inside a closet of their Westchester County home after moving in over 30 years ago. The sketches bore the inscription \u201cTo my dear friend, Captain Epstein,\u201d written in French \u2014 a dedication to Dr. William Epstein, a U.S. Army field hospital captain who helped liberate Roux from the Langenstein-Zwieberge concentration camp.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Orce\u2019s husband, Ken, a MU alumnus and retired lawyer, is now living with Alzheimer\u2019s disease and was unable to attend the opening. The couple eventually donated the sketches to the university\u2019s development office, which connected them with Afridi.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s specifically really unique about Roux is how quickly he did this in such a short time,\u201d Afridi said.<\/p>\n
Afridi said she was immediately drawn to the story when she first encountered the sketches. She was particularly struck by Roux\u2019s identity as a non-Jewish victim of the Holocaust \u2014 a Protestant French resistance fighter \u2014 and by the bond between Roux and his American liberator.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s more important that non-Jews learn this story, and that they understand that not only Jews were victims,\u201d Afridi said.<\/p>\n
While curating the exhibit, Afridi said she discovered a sequential narrative running through the sketches. Arranged along the right side of the exhibit space, the drawings walk viewers through the daily experience of camp life \u2014 from the Appell, or morning roll call, to forced labor, to the brutal consequences faced by those too weak to work.<\/p>\n
\u201cI noticed a sequence in his sketches,\u201d Afridi said. \u201cIt starts with one, which is the Appell \u2014 that\u2019s the roll call they used to have in most camps. And then the second one is they used to get fed. And then the third one is they were taken to labor. And then it shows how, if you weren\u2019t doing labor, you were tired or weak, you were actually beaten and sometimes hung to death.\u201d<\/p>\n
Afridi also placed reflection questions on the walls of the exhibit, inviting students to think critically about the issues the sketches raise.<\/p>\n
For some students on campus, the exhibit has already made an impression. Ian Cortez, a freshman finance major, said walking past the display on his way into the library stopped him in his tracks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know much about the Holocaust beyond what I learned in high school,\u201d Cortez said. \u201cSeeing it shown through someone\u2019s actual drawings makes it feel real in a way that reading about it doesn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leighton Barton, a freshman civil engineering student, said the exhibit reminded him why history classes matter.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s easy to think of historical events as distant,\u201d Barton said. \u201cBut these sketches were made by a person who actually lived through it. That\u2019s a completely different kind of learning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Afridi said the exhibit is also meant to challenge common misconceptions about the Holocaust \u2014 chief among them, that it was solely a Jewish tragedy. While six million Jews were murdered, Afridi emphasized that approximately five million additional victims, many of them political prisoners, resistance fighters and others targeted for opposing fascism, are far less discussed.<\/p>\n
She also pointed to the role of the United States in the story as a deliberate choice. Captain Epstein\u2019s presence in the narrative, she said, is a reminder of American democratic values at a time when those values feel increasingly fraught.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were once the liberators and not the oppressors,\u201d Afridi said. \u201cI think that\u2019s an important message \u2014 that we need to maintain our democracy, our democratic human rights values as we hopefully progress and not regress.\u201d<\/p>\n
Afridi said the exhibit has drawn significant attention since its opening, including coverage by The New York Times. She is also continuing to research Roux\u2019s story and has been contacted by individuals with personal connections to the same field hospital where Epstein served, including a woman whose father also possessed a sketch by Roux.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s all these different stories coming out,\u201d Afridi said. \u201cIt\u2019s almost like I\u2019m starting this whole process of actually making it more of a historical site for people to understand.\u201dStudents interested in visiting the exhibit can find it at the entrance of O\u2019Malley Library before it closes April 17. Additional information about Roux and the exhibit, including footage from the opening and the New York Times article, is available at HGImanhattan.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n Like this:<\/p>\n Like Loading…<\/p>\n