- This image was taken at a moment of saying goodbye and is the reason I became a photographer. From an early age I knew my grandparents were Holocaust survivors, but my awareness was somewhat ephemeral. After I took this picture, I more clearly understood how difficult it was for my grandmother to say goodbye to a loved one. It also contrasted how each of their different experiences indelibly marked upon their faces. My grandparents are each the sole survivors from their families. My grandfather fled during the Nazi invasion of Poland, and after some time in an internment camp in the Ukraine, escaped into hiding until the conclusion of the war. My grandmother and her family were moved into the Warsaw Ghetto. She survived the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and the death camps at Bergen-Belsen, Madjanek, and Auschwitz. My grandfather said goodbye to his family through flight into the forest night. My grandmother said goodbye to her family at the selection line.
 |