May is National Photography Month
KIF encourages Survivor families to preserve their relatives’ history.
Honoring ancestors and safeguarding family history are just two reasons to mark National Photography Month, celebrated every May since 1987 when an Act of Congress recognized the importance of photography in recording modern times.
The role pictures play in documenting life is apparent to most Holocaust Survivor families—whether it is because all records of their relatives’ pre-Holocaust life have been lost or because ancestors managed to smuggle out a few precious reminders of their earlier existence. Pictures of pre-Shoah life illustrate the vibrancy of European Jewry in the early 20th Century. Photos that survived their owners’ suffering and indignities throughout pogroms, cattle cars, concentration camps, death marches, hideouts, hasty retreats, and displaced persons’ camps provide important testimony of historical events too many people are quick to deny. Keeping alive our families’ stories depends, in part, on preserving photographs.
Here are 6 meaningful suggestions for commemorating National Photography Month:
Assemble a photo album or scrapbook of important family photos. To the best of your ability, identify everyone in each picture, where it was taken, the occasion, and the date.
If you are artistic, make good-quality copies of photographs and assemble them into a family tree—going back as many generations as possible and saving space for future generations.
Transfer still shots into a digital format and share the link with relatives. Use the photos as a starting point for conversations with children and grandchildren who may not have had direct contact with the Survivors in your family.
Visit a museum or gallery showcasing Holocaust-era photographs.
Take a photography class to hone your skills. Then, commit to taking pictures of your parents, spouse, children, grandchildren, and siblings so future generations will have a pictorial account of their family’s 21st Century life.
If you are comfortable speaking to a school or community group (either virtually or in-person), select your family’s most compelling and poignant photos of life before, during, and after the Holocaust. Email mlax@kifcle.org to discuss assembling a presentation for KIF’s Holocaust Education programs.
YOUR TURN
How will you mark National Photography Month? What creative ways have you preserved your family pictures? Share your thoughts on our Facebook page.
