A new art exhibit on display at a Massachusetts college imagines a future that never occurred for people killed in the Holocaust.
For those pictured in "Lives Eliminated, Dreams Illuminated" — now on exhibition at the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute at Brandeis University in Waltham — it isn't about what could have been, but what should have been.
"I feel compelled to give them a voice, to give them life," said artist Lauren Bergman.
The exhibition of 23 of Bergman's paintings profiles girls and young women killed in the Holocaust, imagining what their lives would have been like had they not been cut tragically short.
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"To use art and artistry as a window, a keyhole, a way of trying to understand something with the enormity of the Holocaust and antisemitism," said Dr. David M. Milch.
Milch's Dr. David M. Milch Foundation spearheaded the creation of the exhibition. His mother, Lusia Milch, is a Holocaust survivor.
Lusia Milch's family, including her 4-year-old sister, were killed in the Holocaust. One of the paintings imagines a Milch family picnic after the Holocaust, featuring the young girl.
David Milch hopes this exhibit goes a long way to ensuring history does not repeat itself.
"I think that speaking, educating, making sure that people absolutely would not permit any such severe hatred come up again," Milch said.
The exhibit started earlier this month at the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, and since it opened, it has been attracting crowds.
"We have had people come more than once, to come stay for hours, come back, bring friends, and be really moved by the show," said Lisa Fishbayn Joffe, director of the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute. "To engage people in conversations about contemporary antisemitism and bigotry, and hate of all kinds, and I think the show is doing that."
For Bergman, it is all about telling the stories of some of the 6 million Jewish people, including 1.5 million children, killed in the Holocaust.
"It is a project about injustice," she said. "To say to the world, 'This person lived, they had love, they had hopes and aspirations, and we can look at that and value their life, and that their life mattered.'"
The exhibit goes until mid-October, with plans to head to Miami early next year. Organizers say other universities and towns are also expressing interest in hosting.
