On the occasion of the 66th anniversary of its liberation, the former concentration camp Mittelbau-Dora in Nordhausen (Germany) will host the exhibition Displaced Persons, by the German photographer Clemens Kalischer. The series, composed of pictures dating from the end of the 1940’s, is focused on the refugees from Europe, escaping from the horrors of the war and the persecutions by the Nazis up until their arrival to the United States. The artist spent two years portraying them in New York, where he had already been living since leaving France six years earlier, thanks to an urgent visa. In his images, he captures, in his own words, “the fear and expectation in the faces of men, women and children”.
This collection, one of the first series produced by Kalischer, is also one of the most personal and private. “I had the habit of going to every port each time a boat would arrive (…) I believe that it was empathy which allowed me to move around them and photograph them without being bothersome.” That’s how he tells his own experience, capturing in his shots the places, gestures and objects that remained indissolubly tied to that historical moment that they were witness to.
Displaced Persons is an exhibition coordinated by the Argus Fotokunst gallery, which is also currently presenting in Berlin the series Country Road.
Sebastián Messina
From April 12
Former concentration camp Mittelbau-Dora
Kohnsteinw. 20
99734 – Nordhausen
