Join us online for [In a way]: ‘Zine Launch and Transgenerational Talk’ with Iby and Chris Knill, in conversation with our Head of Collections Tracy Craggs, our resident artist Paula Kolar and Special Guest Bea Lewkowicz. During the event, we will launch the HSFA’s very first self-published work (a ‘Zine’), co-produced with Iby, Chris and other members of their family on the theme of inherited memory.
In 2018, Tracy Craggs, recorded several interviews with camp and death march survivor Iby Knill, her children, and grandchildren. Each interview is a dialogue between Iby and one of her family members, carefully guided by Tracy’s questions. The space created and captured in these interviews is an intimate one, allowing family members to voice previously unspoken thoughts, questions and experiences.
This zine is a response to these recordings. It is, [in a way] a kind of family portrait – a portrait of a family born in the wake of the Holocaust. The word ‘resilience’ comes up, but so does the word ‘faith’ – faith in the human potential to do good. Along with, a strong sense of justice, and a need to take one’s bearing: to understanding oneself in relation to something bigger, be that a family, nature or humankind.
This work stems from the desire to gain a better understanding of how trauma is passed on through generations, and how the repercussions of the Holocaust stretch into the present, infringing upon the family of survivors more or less existentially.