Holocaust Museum Houston Digital Newsletter November 2015

ACQUISITIONS

His books are his

The Museum’s Permanent Collection supports the mission of the Museum as outlined in the Museum’s Collection Management Policy. Potential donations are screened and evaluated for relevancy to the scope of the collections and are accepted into the Permanent Collection upon approval of the Collections Committee. During 2015, Holocaust Museum Houston was fortunate to receive several works of famed photographer Roman Vishniac, donated to the Museum’s collection by his daughter, Mara Vishniac Kohn, with the support of the International Center of Photography (ICP). The Museum received 15 of Vishniac’s gelatin silver prints, highlighting Jewish life in Eastern Europe, ca. 1935-1938. Eleven of these iconic images were placed on display in September in a special exhibition “Photographs of Roman Vishniac: A Selection

companions, Warsaw, ca. 1935-38

from the Permanent Collection of Holocaust Museum Houston.” The exhibition ends Jan. 24, 2016. Commissioned ca. 1935 by the European office of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Vishniac began touring the cities and villages of Eastern Europe, recording life in Jewish communities. Through his photography, he documented poverty and the effects of antisemitic boycotts. Since Vishniac’s death in 1990, thousands of previously unknown photographs, spanning more than five decades, were discovered. As a result, the ICP has established a comprehensive archive – 40,000 objects and nearly 10,000 negatives, which are available online at http://vishniac.icp.org/. Among photographs donated to the Museum were “Boy suffering from a toothache clutches a tattered school notebook, Slonim, ca. 1935-38,” a poignant image of a young boy with his head wrapped to ease a toothache. Also included was “Fish seller and his wife in the market on Friday, Kazimierz, Krakow, ca. 1935-38.” This photograph captures a moment in Kazimierz daily life, the well- known Jewish Quarter of Krakow, Poland. During Nazi occupation, Oscar Schindler, whose efforts were documented in the movie “Schindler’s List,” saved some of the Kazimierz residents, but most were deported and died in concentration and extermination camps. Fish seller and his wife in the market on Friday, Kazimierz, Krakow, ca. 1935-38 © Mara Vishniac Kohn, courtesy International Center of Photography.

Boy suffering from a toothache clutches a tattered school notebook, Slonim, ca. 1935-38 © Mara Vishniac Kohn, courtesy International Center of Photography.