Over 10,000 children were saved from death as a result of the Kindertransport operation, an undertaking to rescue Jewish children from the harsh reality of life under the Nazi regime and to bring them to a safe haven. In the months between the November Pogrom ("Kristallnacht") and the outbreak of World War II, thousands of children parted from their parents on railway platforms; the majority never saw them again.
This exhibition presents the works of Michael Falk, Ernest Meyer and Yair Noam, all of whom were young boys when they were forced to part from their parents and leave Germany. Their painful experiences as children in Nazi Germany and the wrench of separation from their parents, families and friends as they were torn from their homes and familiar surroundings, made an indelible mark on them and are clearly reflected in their artwork.
The three artists share a similar life story: All three attended German schools and grew up in established, secular families that were steeped in the German way of life and saw themselves as German in every respect. Some of their relatives had fought in World War I and were fiercely patriotic to their German homeland, that same country that now sought to evict them. All three artists were separated from their parents and homes, and all three reached a foreign country alone, and felt alienated and isolated in their new environment.
The artworks of Falk and Noam were donated in the last year, and were added to the works of Ernest Meyer, which were donated in 2013. These important contributions by the artists and their families provide a window onto the Kindertransport through the prism of art.
This exhibition presents a different form of testimony. As opposed to recorded or written testimony, these artworks constitute the visual testimony of three artists, Holocaust refugees who chose to depict their memories with a paintbrush. The title of the exhibition, "Forgotten Childhood" expresses the return to scenes from childhood that have sometimes been repressed, and explores the choice to return to them at a much later age. The power of these artworks lies in the manner of their collective display, one alongside the other, as they tell the story of three artists and of thousands of Jewish children who were torn from all that was familiar and reassuring in their lives, in the rescue operation known as the Kindertransport.
