by Emily Calhoun

On November 11, 2016, I visited the Drawing Against Oblivion art installation.  It has been open and available to the public since September and ended on November 13, three days after I visited.  The art installation featured two floors full of hand-drawn portraits of various children affected by the Holocaust.  Each portrait was accompanied by a small description of the child featured, usually including the child’s name, if known, and how he or she was affected by the Holocaust.  Most of the children were sent to concentration camps.  Many of them died there.  Only a handful survived.  The coolest part of the installation, in my opinion, was the part called Writing Against Oblivion.  This part encouraged the visitors to the installation to take an envelope and write a short letter to one of the children featured in the installation.  The letters really allowed me to become personally involved in history and form a real connection with the children whose stories and pictures I spent an hour looking at.  I found Drawing Against Oblivion to be very moving.  Reading the personal stories of the various children featured in installation really helped me connect personally to their experiences.  I did my senior research project on the Holocaust, and in all the research I did for that project, I never connected with the experience as much as I did in the hour I spent at Drawing Against Oblivion.  I know that there is a documentary on the installation, and I hope to watch it soon and become even more connected.  I highly recommend a visit to Drawing Against Oblivion to anyone interested in any way.