Holocaust Survivors Gallery

In an age when we are inundated with images on everything from our phones to the silver screen, one thing remains the same – all of the images are two-dimension and flat. A life mask, however, represents an exact copy of a face in the third dimension. It brings forth a unique one-on-one experience, when you view an imprint of someone’s real face directly in front of yours. This intimate encounter is what lies at the core of our campaign to cast survivor’s faces. A photographic portrait of the survivor with his/her story attached will certainly convey a full picture of what a survivor hopes to share for posterity. However, adding a life mask literally freezes that Holocaust survivor’s image throughout time, thus allowing the museum visitor to have a very up close and personal impression of the storyteller.

The “Holocaust Survivors” Gallery is a room devoted to presenting the life masks and interviews of Holocaust Survivors. It is designed to permanently house the twenty-year effort of Robert Sutz, who personally video interviewed and made life masks of Holocaust survivors from different areas of the U.S. While the surrounding walls of this room will be devoted to Mr. Sutz’s work, the center of the room will be a rotating exhibit of Massachusetts survivors life masks and stories. As time goes by, if we are fortunate enough to cast many people, it is our hope that many of these future life masks and stories, will be exhibited in other institutions throughout the country as well.