Mental Maps—Involuntary Memory
Penny Hes Yassour
1997
Image
Mental Maps depicts mirrored images of a 1938 German railway map made from rubber and pigment. The left panel contains two lines of text that read “North is West” and “[I am imprinting it down, because of not being able not to].” The right panel reads “East is South” and “Railway map, Germany 1938.” The neon lights illuminating the map’s surface generate a slightly ominous glowing effect. The artist believed that it was not necessary to explain exactly how the railway maps foreshadow the way that train cars would come to be used in the deportation, displacement, and deaths of Nazi Germany’s victims—even Jews who did not directly experience the Holocaust “remember” it, even involuntarily and these memories continue to shape post-Holocaust generations. She has commented that the doubled image alludes to “the menacing image of the third Reich Symbol.”
Credits
Courtesy of the artist.
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 10.
You may also like
Benefit Lunch with Bertha Kalich
This full-page advertisement for a benefit lunch, to be held that day, December 14, 1898, at the Thalia Theater in New York City, with the famed Yiddish actress Bertha Kalich (ca. 1872–1939), includes…
Dohány Street Synagogue
The Dohány Street Synagogue in Budapest is the largest synagogue in Europe, and the second largest in the world, capable of accommodating three thousand people. The Moorish- and Byzantine-inspired…
Order of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor
To all Commissioners of Immigration and Immigrant Inspectors in charge: It is hereby directed that, with a view to promptly obtaining definite information with regard to alien Anarchists and criminals…
You may also like
Benefit Lunch with Bertha Kalich
This full-page advertisement for a benefit lunch, to be held that day, December 14, 1898, at the Thalia Theater in New York City, with the famed Yiddish actress Bertha Kalich (ca. 1872–1939), includes…
Dohány Street Synagogue
The Dohány Street Synagogue in Budapest is the largest synagogue in Europe, and the second largest in the world, capable of accommodating three thousand people. The Moorish- and Byzantine-inspired…
Order of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor
To all Commissioners of Immigration and Immigrant Inspectors in charge: It is hereby directed that, with a view to promptly obtaining definite information with regard to alien Anarchists and criminals…