Family, lost and found

17Feb12

You might have noticed at this point that my family was more of the “unhappy in its own way” kind. Helmed by parents whose own parents had never shown them much affection, which meant they never learned how dispense it themselves, my family was an archipelago of six individuals with few bonds. We were four [...]

Filed under: 2000s, Childhood, Germany, Third Reich, World War II, Youth   |  Closed
Tags: Brighton Beach, family, friendship, isolation, loss, mortality, sadness, sisters, unhappiness

The whisperers

14Dec11

I lived in Berlin for a year just before the wall came down, the only time I lived in Germany as an adult. It was a strange time, for many reasons.  But what stood out, unforgettably, were people’s faces. They looked distorted, like George Grosz drawings, as if they had put on a mask, but [...]

Filed under: Cemeteries, History, photography, Russia, Youth   |  Closed
Tags: 1989, Berlin, Brighton Beach, cemetery, faces, gravestones, Jewish, mortality, New York City, Orlando Figes, portrait photography, Russia, suffering, The Whisperers, Washington Cemetery (Brooklyn)