The Holocaust: Artwork by Murray Zimiles

Creating much of this work in the mid-1980s, Murray Zimiles’ interest in the Holocaust was sparked after reading a book about the Polish wooden synagogues that were destroyed during the Holocaust.  After this, he created his artist’s book, The Book of Fire, in which he painted representations of these lost places of worship and other scenes of the Holocaust.  Since its creating, the book has been added to the collection of the Museum of Modern Art and other public collections.  Other art from this body of work juxtaposes familiar historic scenes of the Holocaust with domestic animals in order to symbolize the dehumanization that Jews suffered at the hands of the Nazis as well as the latter’s savagery.

Artwork is from the collection of The Florida Holocaust Museum.