Holocaust Icons in Art: The Warsaw Ghetto Boy and Anne Frank

Batya Brutin

• Publisher: De Gruyter Oldenbourg
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9783110653168
• eBook ISBN: 9783110656916
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: History of Modern Art
• Index: History

The photographs of the unknown Warsaw Ghetto little boy and the well-known Anne Frank became famous documents worldwide, representing the Holocaust. Many artists adopted them as a source of inspiration to express their feelings and ideas about Holocaust events in general and to deal with the fate of these two victims in particular. Moreover, the artists emphasized the uniqueness of both children, but at the same time used their image to convey social and political messages.
By using images of these children, the artists both evoke our attention and sympathy and our anger against the Nazis' crime of killing one and a half million Jewish children in the Holocaust.
Because they represent different sexes, and different aspects - Western and Eastern Jewry - of Holocaust experience, artists used them in many contexts.
This book will complete the lack of comprehensive research referring to the visual representations of these children in artworks.

Table of contents

• Preface
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Introduction: Icons of Loss
• 1 Jewish Children’s Fate During the Holocaust
• 2 It Could Have Been Me
• 3 Symbols of the Holocaust: Universal Imagery and Particularly Jewish Iconography
• 4 Connection to the State of Israel
• 5 Uniqueness of the Figures
• 6 Dissolving Memory
• Epilogue
• Bibliography
• Index