Raoul Wallenberg

Raoul Wallenberg was a Swedish humanitarian who worked in Budapest, Hungary, during World War II to rescue Jews from the Holocaust. Between July and December 1944, he issued protective passports (Schutzpasses) and housed Jews in buildings established as Swedish territory, saving tens of thousands of lives.

Unfortunately, his life after the war is a bit of a mystery. He was captured by the Soviet Union in January 1945 under suspicion of espionage on behalf of the Americans. He was later reported to have died in detention in March 1945. However in 1957 after pressure from the Swedish Government, the Soviet Union released a document dated July 17, 1947, which stated “I report that the prisoner Wallenberg who is well-known to you, died suddenly in his cell this night, probably as a result of a heart attack or heart failure”. This was contradicted in a later report in 1991 which said that Wallenberg was executed in 1947 in Lubyanka prison. Despite this there have been many sightings of Wallenberg after this date, with the last reported sighting in prison in 1987. Wallenberg’s niece is still working to uncover the truth of what actually happened to her uncle.

Raoul Wallenberg is remembered all around the World for his humanitarian work. There are monuments and memorials on every continent. The picture above is from the memorial in London, which stands outside the Western Marble Arch Synagogue. Many honours have been bestowed on Wallenberg, with the most important being at the Yad Vashem memorial in Israel as one of the Righteous Among the Nations.

As a result of the good work that Raoul Wallenberg carried out in 1944, the Raoul Wallenberg Institute in Lund, Sweden was established, as an international educational center dedicated to a single mission, “to foster and promote humanitarian thought and action”.

New Building – Old Building

New Building – Old Building, originally uploaded by gary8345.

They seem to be still building London. I took this picture on a recent photo-walk, and just loved the juxtaposition of the old building being surrounded by growing skyscrapers. I had wondered what this scene reminded me off, and the penny didn’t drop until one of my flickr contacts mentioned the Disney/Pixar film “Up”

The building being surrounded here, is owned by Hopton’s charity and has been there since 1752. Hopton’s charity, built and still own this Almshouse. Almshouses are charitable housing to enable people (typically elderly people who can no longer work to earn enough to pay rent) to live in the communities they have previously lived in – some things never change!!

Commuter of the Week #1

Commuter #181, originally uploaded by gary8345.

This is my favourite commutergraphy picture this week. Not to much the subject, but the background. I actually did notice the iPad advert when I took this picture, so it was intensional. Honest!!!

To see more Commutergrapy pictures, click HERE

Jelly Babies at Marble Arch

Jelly Babies at Marble Arch, originally uploaded by gary8345.

Just before Christmas on a shopping expedition, I passed what I at first thought was either a Christmas decoration or an advertising gimmick, and brought a big smile to my face. In fact on further research it turns out its a sculpture by Mauro Peruccheti.

The sculpture is a family of what appear to be giant Jelly Babies. They are part of the City of Sculpture Festival which is running up to the 2012 London Olympics. However, you have to be quick to see the Jelly Babies, they are only on display until April 2011.

A real shame, as they are a colourful addition to Marble Arch, which over the years has just become a giant roundabout. I have yet to see the sculpture at night, as I am sure they look even better lit up.

18 Months To Go

It is now 18 months to the day that the Opening Ceremony to the London 2012 Olympic Games takes place. It doesn’t seem that long ago now since 6th July 2005 when Jacques Rogge announced in Singapore that London was given the honour of staging the 2012 Olympic Games.

The main site, the Olympic Park, is now totally unrecognisable from how it was 6 years ago. Apparently all the building work is on target, and many of the arenas and stadia will be ready in the summer for testing events.

To say I’m excited about what is going to happen in 18 months time, is an understatement. I can’t wait!!!

Holocaust Memorial Day

Today is the 66th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, and since 2001 this day has been recognized in the United Kingdom as the Holocaust Memorial Day. In 2005 the United Nations declared this an international event. The day is used to remember the victims as well as those whose lives were changed during the Holocaust, Nazi persecution and the subsequent atrocities in Rwanda, Cambodia, Bosnia and the ongoing atrocities in Darfur. This year’s theme is “Untold Stories”:

Being Jewish, I have always had an interest in stories from the Holocaust. I have an appetite for all forms of media to do with the Holocaust from reading Ann Franks’ Diary through to watching Schindler’s List. I am often left with a number of different emotions: Anger, Frustration, Sadness and Hope.

Anger
Off course the brutality of what happened during the Holocaust is a big cause of the anger. You think how can human beings be so wicked. Also, why did so many people turn a “blind eye” to what was going on. In occupied Europe, many people could see what was happening and decided not to act.

Many people I know think that the people who turned a blind eye to what was happening, and the people who carried out the atrocities, probably didn’t have any conscious, but I don’t really believe that. People react differently in wartime – and I think it is impossible to really understand the way people act, if you have not lived through a similar time. Everyone feared for their lives, and our natural instinct for survival means that you would do things that you would not normally do. However, this still doesn’t stop me from being angry, that people can ignore such dreadful things.

Frustration
There were reports back about the plight of hundreds of thousands of people in the death camps. True, at the start of the “transportation” most people thought that their friends and family were being transported to Labour Camps, yet by 1941, news of the death camps was well-known across Europe and the Ghettos. However, there are not many stories of people fighting for their freedom. The biggest uprising didn’t happen until 1943 in the Warsaw Ghetto. This lasted a few months, and the official figures show that 17 Germans died and 13,000 Jews lost their lives. With the might of the German army, I guess any uprising would just delay the inevitable, as the result of Warsaw Ghetto uprising proved.

However, even knowing this, I still feel frustrated that people would rather go to their deaths passively. Maybe, even knowing what was waiting for them at the end of their long train journeys, there was some hope that they would be saved.

Sadness
I feel sad for a number of reasons. Off course, for all those people who lost their lives for no reason, those who survived and have had to live with what they saw and experienced. However, there are also personal reasons.

I have probably lost relations to the Holocaust. My Great-Grandfather came from Poland, and on a recent visit to the Holocaust Memorial in Paris, I discovered, that the family name, which has since been anglicized, appears in the list of names of people who lost their lives in the concentration camps.

Although my Jewish roots made me interested in the Holocaust, this discovery made the events even more real.

It also made me think how easy it would have been for me to be caught up in the events. I know, my parents would not have met if my Great Grandfather never came to England, but I realise from reading the stories, how easy it could have been me.

Hope
Yes HOPE. Hope that the stories were untrue, hope that they would be saved from the death camps, hope that the War would end and hope that there were people who would help them.

There were people who proved that hope in your fellow-man was not unfounded. There are many examples of people helping Jews escape the Holocaust. Whether it was for profit, as with Oscar Schindler, or just to help a fellow human being, such as Raoul Wallenberg. I have only recently discovered the story about Wallenberg, who was a Swedish diplomat based in Budapest, Hungary during the War. I am currently reading a book about Wallenberg called “To Save a People” by Alex Kershaw. I will post more about Wallenberg shortly.

Has mankind learnt any lessons from the Holocaust? I’m not exactly sure that we have. Genocide is still happening somewhere, and although the general public put pressure on our leaders to do something, they are often still too slow to react.

Hipstamatic

Eleven Minutes Past Five, originally uploaded by gary8345.

As I have mentioned previously, I have used my iPhone as a camera to document my fellow commuters. I have also recently discovered a photography app called Hipstamatic.

I had been looking at purchasing a toy camera e.g. Holga, and then I heard about this app. You can chose different lenses, different film types. I have been playing around with this app for a little while, and it produces some really interesting pictures of simple subjects, such as the clock above.

Ai Weiwei’s Sunflower Seeds

I recently paid a visit to the Tate Modern to see the latest art installation in the huge Turbine Hall. Until 2nd May 2011, the space has been covered 100 million individually hand made porcelin sunflower seeds (Kui Hua Zi). It took 1,600 people two and a half years to manufacture the number the artist needed to make the piece.

As part of this installation, The Tate are showing a video showing the artist and how the sunflower seeds were made. It also gave some insight in to why the artist chose sunflower seeds as his subject. Ai Weiwei mentions that during the famine years under Mao they were one of the few reliable sources of food, comfort and social interaction. For him they symbolise the Chinese people. Seen through his eyes, the piece is a powerful political statement about the relationship between rulers and the ruled in China.

The Chinese artist, Ai Weiwei’s installation was meant to be an interactive experience. When it first opened, you were allowed to walk over the seeds, however the dust it created was deemed as being too harmful, and now the whole area is cordoned off, and you can view only from a distance. I must admit, it is an amazing sight. The number of seeds is quite mind-boggling, its just a shame that the installation is not how it was first intended.

Commutergraphy

Each work day, I spend three hours travelling to and from work. My iPhone has been a bit if a life saver, in the fact that it keeps me entertained for most of my journey – surfing the net, reading ibooks, listening to music, keeping up to date with my podcasts. However, one day I was playing with the camera on my phone, and took a picture of a fellow commuter. I published this picture on flickr, and couldn’t believe the feedback I received. I try to take a picture each work day, and the term “commutergraphy” was born. So far, I have captured 179 fellow commuters. The whole set can be seen HERE.

I still can’t get over the feedback I receive on this project. Most people who comment on flickr are positive about these images, but non-photography friends, think it is all rather strange, and wonder how people don’t realise their pictures are being taken.

On that note, I sometimes get the feeling people know what I am doing, but as yet, no-one has challenged me, or asked what I am doing. Maybe that says something about travelling around a big city. People, including myself, seem to be in their own space, and try to avoid any communication with their fellow commuters.

From my iPhone

This is such a good idea. I can blog on my travels from my iPhone.

I’ve started a number of blogs before, but have never managed to keep them going for too long. I’m hoping having the facility to blog on the move will encourage me to keep this one going.