Recent Mengele twins, surviving Auschwitz dancing and exciting meeting between survivor and soldier's grandson • Rina Castlenovo and Jim Hollander raise a unique initiative for International Holocaust Day: "Today, this project is critical"

Motka Mordechai Shimonovich, his beautiful wife and grandson, Soldier Jonathan. Meeting between past and present // Photo: Gideon Markovich, / The Lonka Project

When David (pseudonym) left the home of the Holocaust survivors he had just photographed, he disbanded. As a well-known and award-winning American photographer, he was exposed to many stories and harshest tragedies, but something about the story of the survivors who went through the horrors of the Nazis broke it.

It was the first time he had met face-to-face with Holocaust survivors, and when he finished the photo shoot, he closed the door behind him, leaned against the wall and burst into tears. The crisis that gripped him was also the reason he asked not to be identified by his full name.

"I know there is a lot of pain and trauma in our lives, but it doesn't get any easier over the years," he later wrote to Rina Castlenovo and Jim Hollander, a pair of press photographers behind David's project, "The Lonka Project" - a photography venture to commemorate Holocaust survivors And bring their story to the forefront of the world stage. Lonka was Castlenovo's mother, a Holocaust survivor herself. "The pain and wickedness of humanity can stun you beyond the bounds possible," he added, "but the humanity of the survivors is inspiring."

"This project has its own life": Jim Hollander and Rina Castlenovo // Photo: Tzahi Miriam

Hundreds of photographers and Holocaust survivors participated in this extraordinary project in the past year. The youngest of them is over 80, the older of 105. With the close support of businessmen Yuval and Michal Rakvi, and former Knesset member Colette Avital, and with the assistance of the Israeli embassy in the United Nations, will be presented on January 27, at International Holocaust, at the UN building In New York, an exhibition featuring selected photographs of Holocaust survivors. The exhibition will be displayed in the building for 12 days, during which discussions and rallies will be held to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. At the same time, photos from the exhibition will be displayed at the museum at Kibbutz Yad Mordechai, which will be presented as a 22-minute video and video on International Holocaust Day

Castlenovo (65) and Hollander (70) decided to embark on a near-random journey, sweeping away the best photographers in the world, all of whom are volunteering. "Exactly a year ago, we watched CNN report that between 13 and 17 French citizens do not know what the Holocaust is," recalls Hollander, a veteran war photographer who works with the best international news agencies and documented, among other things, the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. . "We didn't understand what it could be like. France was occupied by the Nazis for four years, how do they not know what the Holocaust is?"

This is how the idea creams and skin, and the two appealed to photographers they knew throughout their decades of work. "I was thinking of doing something small through photography, not listening to the news and continuing my life as usual," Castlenovo says. As a photographer for the New York Times, she also has a great resume, and over the years her lenses have captured intifadas and peace treaties, and even a documentary called "My Mind," which deals with the story of Muhammad, a Palestinian child born in Gaza with life-threatening syndrome and was treated for treatment in Israel, But nothing prepared her for the dimensions that the Holocaust venture would take.

Lia Hoover and Judith Barnea, years after meeting the "Death Doctor" Photography: Ohad Zweigenberg / The Lonka Project

Jim: "We contacted more than 300 photographers, and most of them responded promptly. We didn't want to shoot only Israeli survivors and contact only photographers from Israel, so we spoke to photographers around the globe. We thought there were Holocaust survivors in New York, Paris, Warsaw and dozens, too. Other cities, so why not contact them too? The responses were amazing. Everyone agreed immediately. "

"We have also approached photographers of all faiths, including Muslims and even one Buddhist photographer," Castlenovo adds. "What is amazing is that the whole project is completely voluntary, and nobody gets any money. It is not obvious, and to this day we are excited about every photography we receive and every photographer who joins. This project will continue long after we no longer deal with it. It has a life of its own."

The big challenge for the photographers was to reach those survivors. "It was a logistical nightmare," they admit. "We had very busy photographers, and survivors who sometimes find it difficult to get around because of their age. It was like composing a symphony. Everyone had to connect.

"We searched the Internet and went to Yad Vashem and other museums around the world. The problem is that there are no survivors' lists in different countries, and in countries that too - we cannot provide them because of individual austerity," Castlenovo shares. "In the end, we turned to all our acquaintances and asked them to spread the word virally - that we were looking for survivors."

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The rules of the enterprise are clear: Each photographer takes one frame, maximum two. The photographs are mostly portraits of the survivors, individually, as a couple or in a group.

It is precisely the uniformity of the photographs that creates a wide and intriguing variety. "If you send 20 photographers to record a car, they'll come back with 20 different photos," explains Hollander. "The idea was to show Holocaust survivors as they are, where they live.

"We show the power of the survivors. Most of them have rebuilt their lives and have made significant achievements in life, sometimes even at a very old age, and all this alongside the past and history they carry with them."

"We met amazing people, scientists, musicians, academics," Hollander says. "There were those who never spoke and only now agreed to share their story."

The photographs are all inspirational. Ohad Zwigenberg, for example, filmed Leia Hoover and Judith Barnea (82), the last surviving Mengele twins, decades after the death doctor performed cruel experiments on them.

Photographer Tomasz Lazar from Poland photographed Madeleine Kahn (87), who was six when the war began and was hidden in St. Vincent de Paul's hospital in France. Lazar brought her back to where her life was saved. History and the future are mixed together in black and white photography.

"Grandpa Yehuda" // Photo: Oren Ben Hakon / The Lonka Project

Photographer Yechiel HaCohen photographed Dov Landau, who survives the Auschwitz death camp and the only surviving member of his family, dancing at the closing ceremony of reading the Shas daily Gemara page in Bnei Brak.

Even the "Israel Today" photographers who participated in the venture also tell of powerful experiences during the work. For them, this was not the first time that Holocaust survivors were filmed, but the different, artistic-documentary format felt this time as something bigger, international. Last light for Holocaust survivors, which is dwindling.

"I am a second generation survivor of the Holocaust," says photographer Gideon Markowitz. "While we are used to the Holocaust, when you meet a survivor you are in awe of surviving, establishing the state, establishing families. To me, this is the victory over evil, a holocaust to the rebirth."

Markovich photographed 95-year-old Motka Mordechai Shimonovich, who gathered his entire family and first told them about his experiences in the Holocaust. "His entire family was almost extinct, and he was saved because he had access to dogs," Markowitz says. "He escaped from a convoy and was able to calm dogs chased. An SS officer who caught him turned him into a dog and thus he survived the war. Partly because he ate the dogs' food.

"While I was filming Motka with his entire family, one of his grandchildren, Jonathan, came carrying a weapon. After everyone had dispersed, I photographed him with the grandson, in a photograph that symbolizes the past and the future."

Lily Zolzeveck has vowed to always dye her hair // Photo: Tzahi Miriam / The Lonka Project

Miriam Tzahi, who photographed Lily Zolzeweck (92), met a lively and happy woman. "She was a redhead girl when she came to Auschwitz where she cut her hair," she says. "She promised herself that if she came out alive, she would always dye her hair even at an older age. That's why I photographed her in the hairdresser she used to go for 50 years, and in the end, I chose the scissors over her head. Two weeks after filming, Lily passed away.

Oren Ben Hakun documented Yehuda Habush (95) at a birthday party held in honor of his Benisati family, which adopted him several years ago. "We call him Grandpa Yehuda," they said. At the party, which was held in the "Master Chef" style, he cooked Hungarian food from his parents' house.

Others who were documented were not survivors, but took an active part in fighting the Nazis. For example, Ben Franz (99), who served as the chief prosecutor against the Innsbruck group, the SS elite unit in the Nuremberg Trials, after he fought in Normandy and participated in the release of concentration camps.

"It was a journey for us," Castellanovo says. "Photography is very intimate and authoring, and some of the photographers were first exposed to survivors. We experienced the excitement of the photographers as if we were there, and to me some of these meetings, one-on-one, are as important as the entire project."

Hollander: "It was a formative experience for the photographers as well. These are people who know the world, who saw quite a few things, who probably viewed the Schindler list, but did not experience the subject personally. Tough news photographers told me that they had come out of emotionally charged encounters."

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Castlenovo and Holland have lived in the Beit Olive seat for 27 years. A winding staircase leads to a house surrounded by pine trees, and the living room window has a large, green sign, "A Border Warning" - a souvenir brought by Rina from the Second Lebanon War.

From time to time, the two dogs, Coco and Lucy, emerge to paw, and on the side reads the voice of Guapo, a large parrot who immigrated to Israel with Holland. Many pictures and books cover the tables on the wall. "Every day we get all the newspapers to stay up to date. We are both addicted to the news," says Castellanovo.

"We moved to this house in 1993," Hollander says. "We were on crates when they suddenly announced the Oslo agreement and announced that Arafat was on his way to Jericho. We left everything, I went to Gaza and Rina to Jericho. The house remained on crates for six months," he laughs.

Dov Landau, surviving Auschwitz, at the closing ceremony of the "Daily Page" of the Shas in Bnei Brak. The upholstered sleeve reveals the tattoo number Photo: Yechiel HaCohen / The Lonka Project

The two met in Beirut during the First Lebanon War. "I arrived with the IDF, I don't know who Jim came from," recalls Castlenovo with a smile. A year later, in 1983, Hollander came to Israel as a photographer for the UPA, acquired after two years by Reuters, and the love story between them flower.

The rabbi who married them was former Chief Rabbi Israel Meir Lau. As a Holocaust survivor who immigrated to Israel in the illegal immigration ship Exodus, he was also documented in the project, a kind of closing of Holland's circle.

"The first time I thought of photographing Holocaust survivors was decades ago," Hollander says. "The idea remained on paper then, and now, almost at the last minute, got underway. If it had been done 30 years ago it would have been amazing, but it did not happen."

"Today, the project is much more critical and urgent," Castlenovo notes. "The timing is perfect, also because of the rising anti-Semitism in Europe and the US. Last January, no one spoke of a wave of anti-Semitism, and today you see it everywhere.

"I've met quite a few survivors in Israel and abroad, and the message that comes from them is almost the same - everyone calls for unity, empathy, containment and humanity. They fear hatred and anti-Semitism in the world, the danger of another Holocaust. It sounds impossible, but it can happen.

"The project will continue even after the exhibition. We have prepared the infrastructure, and we already have thoughts to continue until the last exploitation. For us, we are responsible for the memory."

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