Displaced Persons (2014)
Displaced Persons. Survivors of the Holocaust 1938 – 1951
What does it feel like to photograph people whose tragic fate could have almost been one’s own? The answer is provided by the special exhibition “Displaced Persons – Portraits of the Homeless,” which the German Emigration Center is showcasing from July 13 to November 30, 2014. The exhibition focuses on the impressive images by photographer Clemens Kalischer, who was born in 1921 in Lindau on Lake Constance and fled with his Jewish family first to France and later to the USA in 1933. He photographed some of the Displaced Persons as they arrived at the New York harbor in 1947/48: former Jewish concentration camp prisoners, forced laborers, and prisoners of war. Some of the large-format black-and-white photographs reveal the profound sorrow and melancholy of the portrayed individuals, while others show thankful and relieved men, women, and children.
The German Emigration Center dedicates the photo exhibition to the fate of the 550,000 Displaced Persons who went to the USA via Bremerhaven after the end of World War II and addresses the experiences of war victims in various camps across Europe, their shipping, and their lives in the USA.
Almanac, an exhibit piece from the cabinet exhibition