Remembering ABE

REMEMBER
"SOMETIMES WE MUST INTERFERE. WHEN HUMAN LIVES ARE ENDANGERED, WHEN HUMAN DIGNITY IS IN JEOPARDY, NATIONAL BORDERS AND SENSITIVITIES BECOME IRRELEVANT. WHENEVER MEN OR WOMEN ARE PERSECUTED BECAUSE OF THEIR RACE, RELIGION, OR POLITICAL VIEWS, THAT PLACE MUST-AT THAT MOMENT-BECOME THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE. " - Elie Wiesel

I'm not really sure where to begin. I had signed up for a Shoe shrine class in July of last year with Michael deMeng. I brought my shoe to shrine and I had also brought with me this thought, memory if you will that I've carried for a long time. I couldn't finish it then. It's finished now.

I've wanted to do a piece about the Holocaust for many years. My husband and I had visited the Museum of Tolerance at the Simon Wiesenthal Plaza in L.A. on numerous occasions. The passport I had received upon entering on this given day was for Abraham Beem.

I dedicate my shoe shrine to Abraham Beem and his sister Eva. Hence the name ABE.

It has taken me this long to feel right about this piece. The shoe represents the walk that these children endured, likely without shoes. I didn't have a photo for Eva at the time so I used a rubber stamp I had that depicted a young girl with a blank stare. The puzzle pieces represent the 'fragments' of their lives. The overstamped saying on the large puzzle piece is a Harriet Tubman quote," The sun came like gold through the trees and over the fields and I felt like I was in heaven". I wanted the confusion with the overstamping to represent the transition these children had from their living hell to our interpretation of heaven. I'll leave the rest to you.

Here is a pic I recently found of sweet Eva Beem.


originally uploaded to Flicker
by rosewithoutathorn 84
on November 25, 2007

We must NEVER forget the atrocities of the Holocaust. Educate your children... Here is a documentary I own and recommend "Paper Clips" see trailer here:



Be sure to stop by my other blogspot: "The Way I See It"