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This program encourages you to reflect on David Labkovski’s works and respond to the work with your own poem, prose, or artwork. We encourage you to think about how the work is applicable in your own life, your family’s history, or in the context of current events.
The best submissions from the year are highlighted during DLP’s Holocaust Commemoration event. We may reach out to you to see if you’d like to participate as a presenter during the event, and your work may be featured in the online DLP commemoration journal.
Watch the below video to learn how to reflect on the artwork of David Labkovski.
Choose a piece of David Labkovski’s artwork illustrating the Holocaust. You may use the online exhibits, David Labkovski’s portfolio, or one of the below pieces to reflect upon for your submission.
The house in these paintings belonged to David Labkovski’s wife, Rivka Spektor Labkovski’s family. Labkovski depicts the family and house prewar (left) and during the Holocaust (right). What do you notice? How does he use color and space?
In the prewar pieces, the Great Synagogue is surrounded by the daily comings and goings of the Vilna Jewish community. After, it is almost destroyed.
Look at these paintings. What emotions do they evoke? What period of time do you think Labkovski was remembering as he painted them?
Reflect upon the work of art and write your response in a poem or prose, or create a unique piece of art. The rules are:
“I thought I understood how hard his life was, but when I was drawing the lines on his face, I felt it.” – Student
by Katia Lysobey
My poem, For the Future Holds Hope, is based off of my two favorite David Labkovski’s paintings, which I love to compare and find the symbols and meaning.
It has collapsed.
The temple is destroyed, but that is not our sorrow.
Forced to leave our homes.
To leave our families.
Forced to leave everything behind.
Forced to board the train,
To enter the forest where our fate is forever sealed.
Forced to die.
Destined to die.
And we think of our home.
Our bustling city once filled with life.
How did we not know?
So oblivious were we to the ominous clouds creeping up on us.
The hatred, the rules, the cruel travesty in depictions of our kind?
A storm brewing right above our heads.
Yet we never saw it coming.
What will come of the children?
The little ones always playing in the streets.
Unaware of the hate directed towards them.
Hated by birth.
Hated for being born.
Hated for only their religion.
Where are they now?
They. So filled with hope and life.
They. Who were dragged into this fight,
They. Who will determine how it shall end.
Those children playing in the street
Will lead us through the darkness.
Our light to guide us through this nightmare.
Until we find our victory.
But what hope is left?
Our home is destroyed.
And yet, amid the destruction,
Vines creep up the walls.
They are the only living things for miles around.
Life in a place of death.
Look further, and there is a light
It peaks out around the corner.
It invites us to follow.
To keep hope.
To keep going.
And so, with pink peeking through the grey clouds.
With wild vines, alive and fresh.
Determined and tenacious.
We hold on to hope.
We follow the light.
The leaders.
The children.
Into our future.
A Life and A Memory: Espiritus Y Corazones by Alex, 8th Grade
A life
A life
Before the wave of genocide
Before the reign of terror
That stole so many lives that scarred them too
A memory
A memory
That latches on and never lets go
The separations, the hope that was lost
How you want, how you wish
to forgive, to forget
But never will.
A life, A memory
A life, A memory
Before the wave of genocide,
that latches on and never lets go
Before the reign of terror, the separations –
the hope that was lost
That stole so many lives
that scarred them too.
How you want, how you wish
to forgive, to forget.
But never will.
Un espiritu
Un espiritu
Solito en la oscuridad
Perdido Y esperando
Un espiritu traumado
Que quieren tanto ser libre
Un corazon
Un corazon
Latiendo Pero no sintiendo
Que ha querido Y herido
Un Corazon afectado
Que saben tanto que no Podran irse
Un espiritu, un Corazon
Un espiritu, un Corazon
Solito en la oscuridad,
latiendo pero no sintiendo
Perdido Y esperando,
que ha querido Y herido
Un espiritu traumado,
Un Corazon afectado
Guidelines:
Please tag @david_labkovski_project on Instagram to share your submissions with our community!
