Perpetrators
An Exhibition Designed to Educate, Provoke and Encourage Study
"I decided to portray that people who made Hitler possible. I began to focus mainly on a representative group of men who helped Hitler to power and implemented his policies. These "perpetrators" came from every facet of life: law, education, the military, industry, finance, medicine, religion, science, journalism, art. They were mainly men of position and education. By using period photographs, together with biographical text as integral to the drawn portraits, I satisfied the twin poles of my aesthetic and didactic interests: work that achieves a formal coherence and at the same time educational impact." -Sid Chafetz, Artist
It has been said that the perpetrators of the Holocaust were ordinary men and women who either willingly participated in the destruction of European Jews or allowed the murders to take place due to their silence toward Nazi policies. The perpetrators were not just German’s or members of the Nazi party; they also included citizens of various backgrounds in countries throughout occupied Europe.
The motivation of the perpetrators is hard to establish as the willingness or unwillingness to participate in mass murder is rooted in the complexities of human behavior and cannot be easily understood in generalities.
It is sufficient to say is that many individuals aided the Nazi’s in their efforts to exterminate the Jews of Europe and Sid Chafetz’s works allow us to explore who the willing participants were and what role they play towards the final solution.
Exhibit donated by the Artist to THC.
