Hidden Childhood

Hidden Childhood

OFMARIAANTONIA’s 2019 Photography Challenge called for one photo to be on the theme of “hidden.”  At the National Holocaust Centre and Museum (Beth Shalom), near Laxton, Nottinghamshire has several thought provoking and/or moving sculpture pieces.  One of these is “Hidden Children.”  While Anne Frank is known by many as a child hidden during the Holocaust, she was by no means alone in this.   Thousands of children were successfully (and sadly unsuccessfully) hidden from the Nazis and their collaborators.   Some were secreted away to attics, false walls, or basements; while others sought refuge in forests or remote farmsteads.  But they were nonetheless “hidden.”

This photo is of the statue, and the artist has done an amazing job in capturing the feels.  Look at the hyper-vigilant gaze on the face of the figure on the left, and the sadness (almost weeping quality) of the one on the right.  This was not simple childhood “hide and seek,” because in this hiding the outcome was a matter of life and death.

Padre