The exhibition commemorates the 80th anniversary of the Holocaust in Hungary, which saw 565,000 Hungarian Jews exterminated in the Soa. The starting point is a little-known fact related to the extermination of Hungarian Jews deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
The SS camp staff wrote letters to the prisoners, reassuring relatives and acquaintances who had stayed at home and were awaiting deportation that they had arrived safely and were doing well.
To make the deception even more perfect, they had to write not Auschwitz, but a fictitious name for the town, Waldsee, in the place of the dispatch. Today, only a few of the original Waldsee postcards have survived, and they are now treasured documents in museums and archives.
The 1944 Auschwitz postcards, which were never answered, were turned into postcard postcards with the help of the artists who were asked to do the work. Launched in 2004, the project has travelled the world in the form of a travelling exhibition, and is constantly expanding, with 42 new postcards on display alongside the earlier works.
For our last exhibition, Waldsee 1944, writers and poets wrote their postcards, and this year we have included composers alongside visual artists in a joint commemoration. The drama that thickens in the now barely legible lines of the postcards sent from Auschwitz, the human tragedies that slowly fade from the paper, have inspired new music.
From the surviving postcards, we know that the authorities offered recipients the possibility to reply, but the maximum length of the text was 30 words. It is not known whether these reply letters ever reached the camp and, if so, whether anyone ever read them. Given the length of the 1944 Waldsee papers, the composers invited to write for this occasion limited their compositions to 3 minutes.
Image:
ÁDÁM Zoltán (H), Hans ALBRECHT (GER), Ida APPELBROG (USA), Uri ASAF (H), Lynne AVEDENKA (USA), BALLA Margit (H), BÁLINT Ildikó (H), Gabriel BARNA (RA), BECK György (H), Deborah BAND (USA), Dorrit BAUER TITLE (USA), Ulrich BERNHARDT (GER), BÖRÖCZ András (H), BP. SZABÓ György (H), Adrien BRODY (USA), Karlheinz BUX (GER), Judy CHICAGO (USA), CORÀ Erzsébet (H), CSONTÓ Lajos (H), Julie DERMANSKY (USA), DRÉGELY Imre (H), EF ZÁMBÓ István (H), Paul EMMANUEL (ZA), EPERJESI Ágnes (H), ESTERHÁZY Marcell (H), FISCHER Judit (H), FLOHR Zsuzsi (H), GÁBOR Áron (H), GÁLY Katalin (SK), GELLÉR B. István (H), G. HELLER Zsuzsa (H), GERBER Pál (H), GERHES Gábor (H), Barbara GREEN (USA), Alex and Lorelei GRUSS (USA), Erik GUZMAN (USA), HAÁSZ István (H), HAÁSZ Katalin (H), HAJGATÓ Terézia (H), HALAS István (H), HARASZTŸ István (H), Hanan HARCHOL (USA), Charles HARBUTT (USA), HECKER Péter (H), Erika HIBBERT (GER), HORVÁTH Sophie (H), Konrad HUMMEL (GER), ILAUSZKY Tamás (H), Ulrika JÄGER (GER), JÚLIUS Gyula (H), KARDOS Sándor (H), KEMÉNY György (H), Tobi KAHN (USA), William KENTRIDGE (ZA), KEREKES Gábor (H), KICSINY Balázs (H), KIRÁLY András (H), Reinhard KLESSINGER (GER), Ulrich KLIEBER (GER), KLIMÓ Károly (H), KOLLER Margit (H), KOVÁCS Johanna (H), Stephen LACK (USA), Joan LIFTIN (USA), Jane LOGEMANN (USA), LÓRÁNT Zsuzsa (H), MADÁCSY István (H), MAJOR János (H), Margalit MANNOR (USA), Robert MARSHALL (USA), MAURER Dóra (H), Richard MCBEE (USA), Louise MCCAGG (USA), MÁTRAI István (H), MÁTRAI Péter (H), MEDVE Zsuzsa (H), MEGYIK János (H), Leonard MEISELMAN (USA), Ulrike MICHAELIS (GER), MOHÁCSI András (H), Nikolaus MOHR (GER), Emilio MORANDI (I), Anette MUNK (GER), Josef NADJ (H), Carolle NAGGAR (USA), NAGY Barbara (H), NAGY Bálint (H), NEOGRÁDY-KISS Barnabás (H), NEMES Csaba (H), Susan NEWMARK (USA), Joe NICASTRI (USA), NOSEK László (H), Natan NUCHI (USA), Christina OHLMER (GER), OROSZ Fanni (H), PACSIKA Rudolf (H), PINCZEHELYI Sándor (H), Sylvia PLACHY (USA), Mark PODWAL (USA), Werner POKORNY (GER), RÁCMOLNÁR Sándor (H), RAJK László (H), Archie RAND (USA), Peter RIEK (GER), John ROACH (USA), RÓNAI Éva (H), Maddy ROSENBERG (USA), ROSKÓ Bea (H), ROSKÓ Gábor (H), RUTKAI Bori (H), Jeffrey SCHRIER (USA), SI-LA-GI (H), Susan SILAS (USA), Robbin SILVERBERG (USA), L’ubo STACHO (SK), Greg STANGER (USA), Hannes STEINERT (GER), Miriam STERN (USA), Gabriele STRAUB (GER), SUGÁR János (H), SZABÓ Eszter Ágnes (H), SZALAI Kata (H), SZÁSZ Lilla (H), SZEGŐ György (H), SZEMZŐ Zsófia (H), Sam SZENMBEK (GER), SZÍJ Kamilla (H), SZILÁGYI Lenke (H), Fredrick TERNA (USA), TAKÁCS Máté (H), TILLMANN Hanna (H), TÓTH Gábor (H), Rolf URBAN (GER), VÁROSI Gabi (H), VÁRNAGY Tibor (H), VÁRNAI Gyula (H), VÁSÁRHELYI Zsolt (H), Diane VICTOR (ZA), Sibylle WAGNER (GER), Joyce Ellen WEINSTEIN (USA), Todd WEINSTEIN (USA), Ruth WEISBERG (USA), Donald WOODMAN (USA), VETŐ János (H), WÄCHTER Dénes (H), WËCHTER Ákos (H), Anton WÜRTH (GER), Andrea ZAUMSEIL (GER), ZÉKÁNY Dia (H), ZOLTÁN Mária Flóra (H)
Music:
BALI János, BALOGH Máté, BOLCSÓ Bálint, CSERNOVSZKY Márk, DINYÉS Dániel, DOBRI Dániel, FARAGÓ Béla, GRYLLUS Samu, HOLLÓS Máté, HORVÁTH Balázs, HORVÁTH Márton Levente, KECSKÉS D. Balázs, MATKÓ Tamás, SÁRY Bánk, SELMECZI György, SEREI Zsolt, SZEMZŐ Tibor, SZENTPÁLI Roland, TIHANYI László, TORNYAI Péter, TÓTH Péter, VAJDA GERGELY, ZOMBOLA Péter