Unbelievable: Swedish 'artist' uses ashes from Holocaust victims in 'painting' (UPDATED)
A Swedish artist has caused outrage among Holocaust survivors by using ashes taken from a concentration camp mausoleum to create his artwork, according to media reports.
The reports say Swedish artist Carl Michael von Hausswolff combined the ashes with water to create gray lines in a painting currently on display in Lund, Sweden. He reportedly collected the ashes from the mausoleum at the Majdanek concentration camp on the outskirts of Lublin, Poland, during a visit in 1989.
This revelation caused outrage and shock in Sweden's Jewish community. Salomon Schulman, a Jewish community leader, said he had lost relatives to the Nazi death machine, and called the painting “revolting.”
"Who knows? Maybe some of those ashes belonged to my relatives. No one knows where they were taken," Schulman wrote in a letter to a popular Swedish newspaper. "I will never go to that gallery [that is displaying Hausswolff's work]. I am appalled by this artwork and his obsession with necrophilia."
Hausswolff argues that the ashes contain the "memories and souls" of the people who were tortured and killed. In a statement to the press, the artist invited the public to view his artwork and judge for themselves.
This 'artist' deserves to die a slow and painful death starting now. The 'museum' that is displaying this 'art' should be ground into dust. And after those Jews who wish to leave have left, Sweden ought to be napalmed. There is simply no excuse for this, and there are no limits to the Swedes' anti-Semitism.
UPDATE 7:20 PM
Of course. The Swedish gallery sees nothing wrong with this....
Martin Bryder, who owns a gallery in Lund, told Sverige Radio that he “sees no moral problem or flaw with exhibiting” a painting which the artist Carl Michael von Hausswolff made from ashes of Holocaust victims from the Majdanek extermination camp.These Swedes are so dense it's amazing.... If I took a Swede's body, burnt it and put the ashes on display in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, do you think they might get it?
According to a local newspaper, Sydsvenskan, Von Hausswolff had collected the ashes more than 20 years ago. The exhibition is scheduled to open at the Martin Bryder Gallery in Lund on Dec. 15, according to the radio station.
Salomon Schulman, a teacher of Yiddish and member of Lund’s Jewish community, wrote in the same local newspaper that he found the display “disgusting” and called it “a desecration of Jewish bodies.”
He added: “Nowhere was the Third Reich more popular than among the educated academics. Today, the Holocaust and racism are still part of their salon talks.”
...
The directorate of the museum at Majdanek is outraged by the art. "We are deeply shocked and outraged by the information that the painting allegedly was made with the ashes of Majdanek victims. This action is an artistic provocation deserving only to be condemned," said a statement published on Wednesday by the museum staff.
"In addition, it is certain that the Swedish painter did not enter into possession of the ashes legally."
Andrzej Fijolek of the Lublin police told JTA that the police have not opened an investigation into how the artist came into possession of the ashes, since no complaint has been filed.
Labels: Holocaust, Swedish anti-Semitism, Swedish hypocrisy
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:51 PM
6 Comments:
So...you're saying that the artist and, in general, Swedes--the entire race and nation--should be subjected to the very thing that your ancestors were subjected to by a tyrannical psychopath? How very Nazi of you. Like Hitler, like Carl in Jerusalem.
I understand the passion it has aroused, and rightly so. But when passion turns irrational (or even hypocritical), it no longer is useful. I will pray for you and the horribly misguided artist.
I agree with you, both with regard with the artist and the country itself. Take heart in the fact that both of them will be tried measure of measure soon enough.
Someone needs to snatch the painting and give it a respectful burial, an act of courage like the Israeli ambassador to Sweden who himself was disgusted enough to personally take apart that terrorist-glorifying "artwork" a while back.
There's got to be some kind of law covering the theft and illegal use of a nationally owned material such as this.
May God give them a swift and fitting judgement.
I'm at a loss for words on this. I thought I'd seen/read the worst with Serrano's "The Piss Christ", a photo of a Crucifix in a jar of the "artist's" urine.
Carl Michael von Hausswolff has sunk even lower.
This is unspeakable degradation. I think Will has it right with his comment, which applies not only to Carl Michael von Hausswolff, but also to those who are no better, the cold, heartless Swedes who see this affront to all humanity as "no big deal".
RJChavez, even if Carl got angry and said some wild things (which we all know he would never carry out), you DO realize that there's a HUGE difference between wanting to kill someone who's ACTUALLY HARMED YOU, as opposed to someone who's done nothing, right? But thanks for comparing him to Hitler - always good to Godwin yourself right out of the gate.
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