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Unspeakable, the artist as witness to the Holocaust
Imperial War Museum

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Aviva Halter-Hurn

''As a daughter of a Survivor I had grown up hearing about all the atrocities of the Holocaust. I tended to push it all to the back of my mind not really wanting to believe how horrible one man could be to another.'

Aviva Halter-Hurn
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Aviva Halter-Hurn, Auschwitz through Lino-cuts. This black and white linocut print features the figure of a man who is lying down with his eyes closed and his mouth open, as though gasping for air or crying out in pain. The man is shown from the waist up, lying diagonally across the print with his arms extending to either side. The background is dotted with points and lines as though he is lying on muddy ground or gravel in the camp.
Auschwitz through
Lino-cuts, 2001
Linocut, Imperial
War Museum
Aviva Halter-Hurn, Auschwitz through Lino-cuts. The central image of this black and white linocut print is of three men in striped uniforms who have been hanged. Their outstretched bodies lie limp beneath the beam from which the ropes have been tied. With nooses still around their necks, these men hang with downturned faces. A blank, expressionless face can be seen to the left of these figures, perhaps another victim or perhaps the executioner; this face is featureless, with its body hidden behind the three main figures.
Auschwitz through
Lino-cuts, 2001
Linocut, Imperial
War Museum
Aviva Halter-Hurn, Auschwitz through Lino-cuts. Set against a black background, this black and white linocut print features three prominent figures lying atop of a pile of bodies. Two full bodies can be seen lying on top of one another, while only the legs of a third can be seen sprawled over the top of the pile. Hidden within the pile are the remains of others who are not fully visible.
Auschwitz through Lino-cuts, 2001
Linocut, Imperial War Museum

Aviva Halter-Hurn, Auschwitz through Lino-cuts. This black and white linocut print features an anonymous person lying down on their left side, half-curled up against a light background. Though the details are minimal, it is obvious from the shape of the almost-skeletal body that this person is suffering from starvation and is either dead or close to death. The head of the figure is downturned slightly, half-hidden by the thin arms which cross over their chest.
Auschwitz through Lino-cuts, 2001
Linocut, Imperial War Museum

Aviva Halter-Hurn had just finished her Honours Degree at Camberwell College of Arts and Crafts when her father, Roman Halter, put on an exhibition of his work called 'Remembering for the Future' in 1988. This inspired her to produce a set of prints 'Auschwitz through Lino-cuts'.

'As a daughter of a Survivor I had grown up hearing about all the atrocities of the Holocaust. I tended to push it all to the back of my mind not really wanting to believe how horrible one man could be to another. I found it hard to comprehend how my father had managed to survive. A whole chapter of his life, that was so alien to me and played such an immense part of the man he is.

Through these prints which I took directly from the pictures drawn in the camps on scraps of paper, wood, or what ever else that they could find to draw on. I could glimpse into the horrors of what my father had been through and for the first time mourn my fathers family who I never knew.'

Aviva Halter-Hurn

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