Etching 25 x 31 cm

Etching 25 x 31 cm. The Spitalfields Machzike Hadass is a building that has been a church, synagogue and mosque. Both my paternal great grandparents attended this synagogue a century ago although it is unlikely they ever met. The two plate etching is a photograph taken on the last day of the building's life as a synagogue together with a drawing made of it in its current use as a mosque.

Etching 34.5 x 27 cm The Wedding day is my maternal grandparents at the back of their home in Frankfurt-am Main. Some of the people in the photo wear the synagogues of their origin on their chest. A fire is on the fringes. The family maid who denounced an aunt to the Nazis is present. The drawing is of the synagogue where they married.

Etching 38 x 26 cm. Visiting Isca Salzberger Wittenberg whose father, (Rabbi Salzberger) had married my grandparents in Frankfurt, we talked about happy community life prior to the Nazi period contrasted with witnessing Nazi defenestration of sacred texts. During the conversation there was animation remembering arriving at school carrying the enormous traditional first day cones of sweets (the schultutte). These children full of hope and proud to go to school before it was forbidden to do so.

Etching 29 x 39 cm. My great uncle Maurice Aronsohn was killed in the battle at Cambria 1917 and his body was not recovered. I went to La Vaquerie, a small village with a commanding view of its surroundings. Using a trench map I walked from the village to the junction at Bonavis and back again. My reading of the battle had lead me to think that Maurice had died on the retreat –at a place called Pelican trench. From a pillar box looking towards the area of the trench I made some drawings.

Etching 29 x 39 cm. My great uncle Maurice Aronsohn was killed in the battle at Cambria 1917 and his body was not recovered. I went to La Vaquerie, a small village with a commanding view of its surroundings. Using a trench map I walked from the village to the junction at Bonavis and back again. My reading of the battle had lead me to think that Maurice had died on the retreat –at a place called Pelican trench. From a pillar box looking towards the area of the trench I made some drawings.