Artist David Kassen paints portraits of Holocaust survivors. On Tuesday at the Aspen Jewish Community Center, he’ll sketch Hanna Pankowsky. She fled the Nazi regime in Poland when she was 10. It’s part of an event that aims to remind the audience that the Holocaust is not ancient history.
The event is sponsored by the University of Southern California’s Shoah Foundation, which collects the stories of survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust.
Dr. Stephen Smith, the Shoah Foundation’s executive director, said that Kassen’s portraits capture these stories in a particularly impactful way.
“It’s the detail in the eyes, it’s the emotion, it’s the power of the story behind this image which just conveys itself so immediately,” said Smith.
After the painting demonstration, Smith will lead a discussion with Pankowsky and Kassen about what those persecuted during World War II have to teach about modern genocide.
"What they’re really trying to do is help us navigate what does it mean to be human and be excluded. What does it mean to be human and torn apart from your family and your home and your place," he said.
The artist’s demonstration begins at 3 p.m. on Tuesday.