Through reenactment phototherapy I attempted to rectify the effects on my father not being able to speak of the murder of his parents and sister. My father escaped from Czechoslovakia to England in 1939 carrying with him his mother’s crystalornaments. This was after the ‘Night of the Broken Crystal’/‘Kristallnacht’. On returning with the Czech army to Prague he learnt of the murder of his parents and sister, and never spoke of them again; no longer wanting anything of value for himself or those he loved. In order to work through the effects this has had on me, I photographed both the crystals and myself dressed as my grandparents and aunt in order to tell their first-hand accounts. I then discovered letters my father had received from his parents and sister which were to change the experience but not all the accompanying intergenerational trauma.
All content © Del Loewenthal 2018
