"The Photographer who used Words? The Writer who used Pictures? The Genius of Bernard Gotfryd" with David Scrase

Join us for the next lecture in our "Artists and Immigrants Series" with Professor Emeritus David Scrase, who will discuss the life, work, and writings of photographer Bernard Gotfryd (1924 - 2016). In his life before immigration, Bernard Gotfryd became a master of photography. As Poland was engulfed by World War II, with the camps and genocide dominant, Gotfryd was deprived of camera and darkroom for four years. After his immigration to the United States, where he became a renowned photojournalist for Newsweek, he ultimately responded to his mother’s last words as she was deported to her death—write about everything so that the world knew the truth of the Holocaust. In the 1980s, he published his first tales in Midstream and Newsweek. Gotfryd's book Anton the Dove Fancier: and Other Tales of the Holocaust was first published in 1990, and an expanded edition was released in 2000. With no camera during the Holocaust, Gotfryd was unable to record what happened as he went from the house he grew up in, to the ghetto, to a series of camps, until he was liberated in May 1945. But, his experiences remained with him as striking images with clear-cut details. With his “photographer’s eye”, Gotfryd rescued those images, each tale vividly providing a back-drop, scenery, and action of the dramatic events. The virtual program takes place on Wednesday, October 19 at 6 pm EDT. The event is free, but donations are appreciated. Registration is required. Born in England in 1939, David Scrase made Germany, its language and culture, not least its history, his career. After having bounced around in England, Germany, France, Switzerland, and Austria, he immigrated in 1969 to the United States, where he became Professor of German and the founding Director of the Carolyn and Leonard Miller Center for Holocaust Studies at the University of Vermont. He lives in Vermont and enjoys retirement with gentle reading and research coupled with woodworking and gardening. In celebration of the centennial of Chaim Gross's immigration to the United States, the Foundation is focusing our programming on illuminating the stories of artists and immigrants in the collection. Artists and Immigrants is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Prior lectures can be found on the Foundation's Centennial page.