The Kansas City Star: ‘Lest We Forget’: Traveling Holocaust remembrance project opening in Kansas City
September 18, 2019
The portraits are larger than life, close-up, detailed photographs of Holocaust survivors.
“It’s important to me to put their faces up front,” says photographer Luigi Toscano. “So that when the visitor comes to look at the picture, they must see (the survivor’s) eyes.”
Toscano has taken close to 400 such portraits worldwide. About 70 of them will come to the National World War I Museum and Memorial from Friday through Oct. 6 in his traveling exhibition, “Lest We Forget.”
The display includes the seven survivors Toscano photographed in Kansas City earlier this year, such as Sonia Warshawski of Prairie Village, who was made famous in the documentary “Big Sonia.”
Toscano, who is German-Italian, was 18 and growing up in Europe when he traveled alone to Auschwitz, the largest Nazi concentration camp.
“I hoped there was someone there who could explain to me,” Toscano remembers. “I could not believe this had happened. It branded really deep in my mind.”
He did not immediately process the experience with art. He worked as a roofer and bouncer for years and only later became a photographer. The idea for a Holocaust remembrance project took shape in 2015.
“I know that I can say something with my camera,” Toscano said. “I decided to say this.”
In the United States, the exhibition has stopped at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C., and at the United Nations in New York City, among other places.
Toscano now dedicates a significant portion of his professional life to traveling the world and meeting survivors. City to city, he listens to their stories and takes their portraits. He documents them with a sense of urgency: 74 years after the end of World War II, the last generation of Holocaust survivors is dying.
He also travels each time “Lest We Forget” opens in another city. “The experience when I show this exhibition is amazing,” Toscano said. “I am really happy that young people are also coming. I think this is another way for education.”
In Kansas City, “Lest We Forget” is presented by Goethe Pop Up Kansas City as part of the nationwide “Wunderbar Together: The Year of German-American Friendship,” in partnership with the World War I museum.
Toscano will appear at the exhibit’s opening ceremony at noon Friday. For more information, see theworldwar.org.
Related Content
TravelPulse: Germany launches year-long cultural celebration across US
Americans and travelers to the U.S. can celebrate cultural exchange and friendship between Germany and the U.S. all year long beginning Wednesday. The German Federal Foreign Office (FFO), the Goethe Institut and the Federation of German Industry (BDI) have announced the launch of Deutschlandjahr USA—the Year of Germany—all over the U.S.
Read MoreKTVB: WanderbUS brings German culture to Idaho
Meridian students spent the day learning about German culture, language, even touring several German cities -- all from the comfort of a tour bus.
Read MoreThe Gazette: A cultural conduit: German WanderbUS tours Mount Vernon, Cedar Rapids high schools
A wheeled showroom of German culture rolled through two Corridor area high schools last month, brightening up what for students otherwise might have been unremarkable mornings in the classroom. Mount Vernon High School and Washington High School in Cedar Rapids became the two Iowa stops from Sept. 18-19 for the national WanderbUS tour, which packs digital trivia, a photo booth and virtual reality […]
Read More