Living On: Portraits of Tennessee Survivors and Liberators

The Tennessee Holocaust Commission (THC) has launched an ambitious new project for the state of Tennessee, entitled Living On: Portraits of Tennessee Survivors and Liberators. The THC is seeking to record the stories and portraits of Holocaust survivors, US Army personnel who liberated or experienced conditions in concentration or death camps first-hand and American POWs who survived the slave labor camp at Berga am Elster. When completed, the photo and word portraits will become a full scale exhibit projected to open in spring 2004.

Credit: USHMM, courtesy of National Archives

The THC hopes to contact every survivor, liberator and Berga POW now living in Tennessee. For this exhibit, survivors include anyone targeted for persecution, concentration or death living in Nazi-occupied Europe after Krystallnacht, November 1938. Liberators include those who fought to liberate concentration and/or death camps or who visited these camps in occupied Europe within thirty days of their liberation. Berga POWs include any of the 350 men who worked as slave laborers at Berga following their capture at the Battle of the Bulge.

Credit: USHMM, courtesy of Col. P. Robert Seibel

All survivors, liberators and Berga POWs are requested to contact the Tennessee Holocaust Commission at (615) 343-2563 or by e-mail tnholcom@vanderbilt.edu immediately with their contact information. During the months of June, July and August, project members Robert Heller, associate professor of photography, College of Communication and Information, The University of Tennessee, and Dawn Weiss Smith, Nashville-based journalist will travel to four regional locations in the state to photograph and document each story. This venture was funded and created by the Tennessee Holocaust Commission to create a traveling exhibit that will impact all citizens, preserve history and honor those who fought and survived.