The images are haunting: black-and-white prints of a snow-covered barracks and paintings bordered by wire fences and skeletal trees, grim depictions of a World War II camp in France where Jews were interned before being transported to concentration camps.
Jacques Gotko’s Unique Techniques
The artist, Jacques Gotko, used innovative techniques to create his pieces. One picture was made using a background of crushed eggshells glued to a wooden board, while for others he utilized an old tire as a printing block. These materials were among the few available to him at the camp where he was held before being transported to Drancy, another camp in France, then Auschwitz-Birkenau, in Poland, in 1943.
The Rich Collection at Yad Vashem
Fragile and rarely displayed, Gotko’s works are part of a vast repository of Holocaust-related artifacts collected by Yad Vashem, Israel’s official Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem. The collection includes millions of documents, thousands of testimonies, artworks, personal belongings, and over half a million photographs.
The Importance of Preservation
Most of the artifacts were scattered around Yad Vashem’s campus but have now found a new home in a recently completed center that will improve accessibility for researchers and provide advanced technological conditions for their preservation. The center was inaugurated on Monday, emphasizing the urgent need to safeguard these artifacts as the Holocaust fades further into history and antisemitism resurges globally.
Preserving the Jewish Legacy
“These artifacts are the crown jewels of the Jewish people,” said Dani Dayan, the chairman of Yad Vashem. “They are essential for maintaining historical remembrance, as there is no Judaism without acknowledging our past.”
