THE HORRORS OF WAR SHOULD NEVER OCCUR AGAIN

mai 14, 2014

Abel Pann (1883–1963), born in Latvia] or in Kreslawka. He was a European Jewish artist who spent most of his adult life in Jerusalem. Until seeing his work at the Jewish museum today, I knew nothing about him. The gallery was empty and the exhibition difficult to accept because of the horror it depicted. Especially after laughing with Marc Gotlib.

Having decided to move to Jerusalem permanently, Pann returned to Europe to arrange his affairs before moving to the British Mandate of Palestine, but was caught on the continent by World War I. Pann's wartime paintings would prove to be among "the most important" of his career.He made many posters to support the French war effort.He also made a series of fifty drawings showing the extreme suffering of Jewish communities caught in the fighting between Germany, Poland and Russia. This was the subject of the exhibition.

These "shocking" drawings put modern viewers in mind of depictions of the Holocaust. Pann's drawings were intended as journalistic documentation of the fighting and were successfully exhibited in the United States during the War. According to Pann's autobiography, the Russians, who were allied with the French, refused to allow a wartime exhibition of the drawings in France. According to the New York Times, the drawings were published in Paris during the war, but the government intervened and blocked their distribution on the grounds that they "reflected damagingly upon an ally" (Russia).
Victory day was May the 8th for the first world war. It seems very appropriate that the Jewish Museum in Paris had an exhibition of his engravings. They are extraordinarily touching, heart rending in fact. But then was war ever attractive? Anti-Semitic feelings and attitudes still rage around the world - hatred is a horrible part of human nature.

The pictures are self explanatory.