The artist and the subjects involved in a new exhibition on child Holocaust survivors hope it will shine a light on the experiences of today’s trauma victims.
The exhibition, Tribute: Child Survivors of the Holocaust, features paintings of 18 elderly Melburnians whose World War II experiences included the murder of relatives, hiding from Nazis in a cupboard and near-starvation.
Artist Jeffrey Kelson painted each person’s portrait, but also sketched them as children from photos, to illustrate their resilience in forging new lives.
One of them, now-retired psychiatrist Paul Valent, did not identify as a Holocaust victim until 1989, when an expert on child survivors at a San Francisco conference pointed out that his experiences fit.
Dr Valent said it used to be believed that children didn’t suffer because they weren’t aware of what was happening, and didn’t remember. He realised that wasn’t the case.
In Nazi-allied Budapest in 1942, Dr Valent was four when he witnessed police arresting his parents, for being illegal Slovakian immigrants. He was left alone on the street.
Read the full article by Carolyn Webb at The Age.