Stars tell us of the infinite, of something in ourselves that is starlike. We watch and wish on stars. In loss, we look up and we pray to stars, imagining our ancestors as residing in the heavens. They are the stars and constellations in the night sky. They are the legendary elders and immortals who inhabit the past, whose influence is felt within the present and write tomorrow’s history.

Curated by © POLINA ANGELOVA

C O N C E P T

“A Sky of Stars” exhibition is curated by Polina Angelova and is initiated to celebrate one of the most inspiring stories in the history of the world’s humanity. Almost 48,000 Jews were saved from being deported to the death camps of the Holocaust. Bulgarian men and women laid down on the railroad tracks, risking their own lives. The deportations from Bulgaria never took place. The exceptional courage and goodness that emerged in the midst of unspeakable tragedy and destruction are still known as “the miracle of the Jewish people”.

The exhibition “A Sky of Stars” is a result of a 2 year-long research project and is part of Hidden Identity Projects. “A Sky of Stars” aims to raise awareness of an extraordinary fact kept secret until 1989 and tell a story which explores parts of our culture that were hidden. Inspired by the 77th Anniversary of the Saving of the Bulgarian Jews from the Holocaust, “A Sky of Stars” will open on 8.10.2020 at 19:00 at the Bulgarian Cultural Institute, located at the building of the Bulgarian Embassy in London.

To reflect on the exhibition concept and the theme of the larger project, the artists were invited by the curator Polina Angelova to create a series of conceptual artworks that connect the position of the heavenly constellations to the correspondence of the individual path of the human being. Showing these connections in different ways the artists created depictions of star maps marking significant dates of the life of Holocaust survivors and their descendants.

“A Sky of Stars” exhibition consists of the artworks of three multimedia artists: the series “Caelestis Memoriae” by Billy Byrne, the series “Lost and Found” by Emily Marbach, the series “The inextinguishable light” by Jason Rose and the 12 Stars series of highly conceptual fine art photographic artworks concepted, curated and directed by Polina Angelova.

This exhibition will be accompanied by a publication and will include filmed interview with Lady Zahava Kohn – a Holocaust Survivor and the second-generation perspective of her daughter Hephzibah Rudofsky. “A Sky of Stars” exhibition will close on 20.10.2020.

© POLINA ANGELOVA

BILLY BYRNE

“Caelestis Memoriae”

“I’ve been drawing as long as I could hold a pencil”

Billy Byrne is a practising British artist, currently working and living in London. He has grown up in a working-class area of East London, where he has been heavily influenced by the diversity that city life brings. Brought up by a mother who liked to make art while taking him to her drawing classes, it was the natural progression that Billy would go on to study art and become an artist himself. His current work deals with themes of mental health, a subject Billy became drawn to when he was diagnosed later in life as being on the autistic spectrum. His signature style uses predominantly the Pointillist technique and application of gold leaf. He believes that the story of the Saving of the Bulgarian Jews from the Holocaust has the power to renew faith in humanity.

EMILY MARBACH

“Lost and Found”

“We are such a small minority in the world, less than one percent of the population and yet Jews have achieved a lot. I feel a sense of pride about that and a sense of sorrow that there is still so much hatred sent in our direction”

Emily Marbach is an American figurative artist living in London. She grew up writing poetry and eventually using it for performance art. Emily studied ceramics for many years in New York, Tokyo and London. But it took her until her 34th birthday, when she asked for a canvas and a few hours to herself, to discover that she adored painting. She has exhibited and sold paintings at The Royal Academy Summer Exhibitions. Her latest prints were exhibited at POSK Gallery as part of the Impressions exhibition. In 2018, one of her collages appeared in a group exhibition in Gainsville, Georgia and another in Kent, Ohio through the National Collage Society. Recently, she exhibited in a group show with the Notting Hill Artists Association. Emily creates at her home studio in Notting Hill.

JASON ROSE

“The inextinguishable light”

“For me, beauty is about truth – seeing the true heart of another person being expressed or seeing a beautiful sunset or hearing an exquisite piece of music and experiencing an opening of truth inside one’s own heart and mind. A beautiful person is one that’s real and authentic and not restricted or obscured by convention or masks”

Jason Rose is a London-based artist specialising in portraits. He’s always been heavily influenced by the surrealists and the combination of exploring dreams, psychology and the unconscious together with a high degree of technical figurative painting skill. His work uses both realism and impressionistic techniques. His inspiration comes from painting the people he loves and the weirdness of quantum mechanics. Environmentalism and fantasy have always been areas close to his heart since a very early age. Growing up in Chingford with his younger brother and Jewish parents, he experienced antisemitic bullying from an early age. He takes pride in being Jewish in a cultural sense, even though his spiritual path has taken a different route.

MAPS TO HEAVEN | ’12 STARS’ Series curated by Polina Angelova

With Holocaust Survivor – Lady Zahava Kohn MBE & Hephzibah Rudofsky

Concept and Creative Direction by Polina Angelova

Polina Angelova is the concept creator, creative director and author of the ‘MAPS TO HEAVEN’ highly conceptual fine art photography series with Holocaust Survivor Lady Zahava Kohn MBE and her daughter Hephzibah Rudofsky.

‘MAPS TO HEAVEN’ is a journey both on a physical and divinely scientific level through life’s most significant moments of a Holocaust Survivor.

‘MAPS TO HEAVEN’ explores destiny as a correspondence between the position of the heavenly constellations and the individual path of the human being.

Combining the pursuit of beauty with the scientific observations of the Universe, the series shows the most intimate relationship between Man, Time and the Cosmos.

THE CURATOR

“As a native of Bulgaria I am also a global ambassador through my work as a curator. I constantly revise unexplored connections of our culture which go hand in hand in art, design and architecture”, says Polina Angelova.

As a curator Polina Angelova has collaborated with contemporary designers, artists, galleries and institutions including the Design Museum in London, Collect Design Fair, Pret A Porter in Paris, Clerkenwell Design Week, Hull Studio, Gallery FUMI, LAPADA – The Association of Art and Antique Dealers, SAMCA, The Museum of Contemporary Art and the National Gallery of Bulgaria. She has worked on developing curatorial projects alongside Justin McGuirk, Tom Wilson and Donna Loveday. She is one of the co-curators of the “Re-considering Canon” exhibition at the Design Museum in London, during LDF 2018 and the curator of the “Do Not Forget” exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, branch of the National Gallery of Bulgaria. She is currently working on creating a historical recording for posterity, documenting videos with Holocaust Survivors. She takes pride in being Bulgarian.

 FOR ‘A SKY OF STARS’ Exhibition and  HIDDEN IDENTITY PROJECTS

 H.E. Mr Marin Raykov – Ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the Republic of Bulgaria to the Court of St. James for Hidden Identity Projects and A Sky of Stars Exhibition

I would like to welcome this exhibition, which is part of a larger project related to the Saving of the

Bulgarian Jews during the Holocaust – a major historical event to which the European historical memory

remains indebted, despite the widely acknowledged facts. In one of the most frightening periods of

darkness in our European history, a period marked by large-scale praise of death and hatred, which in

fact was the Holocaust, the Bulgarian political class, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and the vast majority

of the Bulgarian nation withstood a moral test of noble growth and selflessness, which unfortunately many

other national communities failed to successfully pass. Those Bulgarians who took part in the saving of our

Jewish fellow citizens had the deepest of conviction that it was their patriotic duty and did not feel at any

moment that they were performing heroism. For them, for the highest clergy of Bulgaria, for the Bulgarian

royal family, this was an act equivalent to the attestation of belonging to the Christian civilisation and to

the family of civilised nations.

The categorical rejection of the very existence of the “Jewish question” in Bulgaria was ubiquitous

and unanimous, regardless of the anti-Jewish legislation that some extremists imposed on the Bulgarian

society. The awareness of the worth of significance of the act of salvation of our fellow Jews during the

The second World War is greatly important not just for the proclamation of our historical memory and identity,

but also for the influence on our moral system and moral values for today and our future generations of

Bulgarian tolerance, solidarity with our closest ones, respect for cultural pluralism and diversity in

our united national community.

At the same time, it is an occasion of deep reflection and a chance to bow our heads in memory of

the 11,000 Jews from Thrace and Macedonia, who were not saved by the Bulgarian administration, nor did

they receive the same expression of solidarity from the local Bulgarian community. Their deaths, as part of

the Holocaust engages our conscience and our thoughts on topics that go far beyond the conclusion of

the Nazi barbarism.

Today, we have a clear awareness to continue to appreciate the value of the lost lives of the innocent,

as well as that of the 48,000 saved Bulgarian Jews.

It is these thoughts, indeed, that gives me the reason to welcome any project that draws the focus to

the public attention towards the Saving of the Bulgarian Jews.

Hephzibah Rudofsky for ‘A SKY OF STARS’ Exhibition | HIDDEN IDENTITY PROJECTS

In mid-August, I was contacted by a friend, Emily Marbach, one of the artists featured in

the exhibition, who introduced me to the ‘Hidden Identity Projects’ and ‘A Sky of Stars’

exhibition.  She explained that she was working on a Bulgarian Holocaust art project and

mentioned that the curator, Polina Angelova, was hoping to interview Holocaust

survivors as part of the project. Knowing that my mother, Zahava, is a Holocaust survivor

who has been speaking publicly about her experiences in recent years, Emily asked

whether she might wish to become involved with the project. I explained that sadly this

Wouldn’t be possible – but I could reach out to other survivors who might be willing and

able to become involved.  I received information about the exhibition – its focus was on

how almost 48,000 Bulgarian Jews had been saved from deportation to the death camps

during the Holocaust. To be honest and to my embarrassment, this was something of

which I had been unaware – but I was interested to learn more.

I offered to speak with Polina to see whether I could put her in contact with other

survivors.  We agreed to meet and just a few days later, we were sitting in my garden –

socially distanced of course – enjoying the late afternoon sunshine, sipping Bulgarian

rosebud tea and discussing her project. She shared with me her vision: the concept of

the exhibition and the artistic content she was hoping to include. The photographs were

striking and beautiful; I realised this was no ordinary portrait photography exhibition. It

was an exciting interpretation of a painful subject.

Polina’s passion, warmth and humanity were magnetic and I felt myself being irresistibly

drawn into this project, even though my connection with its theme was tenuous to say

the least. By the end of the meeting, I found myself agreeing to become involved and to

be interviewed as the daughter of a survivor. This is where the interpretation of the

theme was extended and varied so that it could include my family story.

Although I had at first thought it would be difficult to involve Zahava in the project, I had a

change of heart and with my mother’s agreement, proposed that she could be involved

in a visual context rather than giving an interview. Polina was delighted with this

suggestion. 

My mother, Zahava Kohn, is a Holocaust survivor. She was born in Palestine in 1935,

which at that time was under British control.  Her parents moved to Palestine from

Holland in 1935. My grandparents found living in Palestine challenging. My grandmother

Rosy became so unwell that the doctors advised her to return to Europe. They left

Palestine in April 1937 and moved to Amsterdam, unaware of the irony that they were

returning to Europe for health reasons. Life was difficult for Dutch Jews due to the anti-

Semitic laws being passed and the Kanarek family had to adapt to all these changes. My

grandparents tried tirelessly to leave Holland for Central America but sadly the papers

for Honduras citizenship they had managed to arrange in April 1943 arrived too late. My

grandparents had already handed over their 16-month-old son Jehudi to the Dutch

Resistance in December 1942.

In May 1943, the SS came for Zahava and her parents and they were sent to

Westerbork, a transit camp in Holland. They were held there until January 1944 when

they were selected to be sent to Bergen- Belsen, a concentration camp near Hanover in

northwest Germany. In the brutal conditions of Bergen -Belsen they were starving and

close to death. Against all the odds my mother and my grandparents survived this

horrendous ordeal. For reasons we still don’t know today, they were released from

Bergen- Belsen in January 1944 – and after a few days in Weingarten, south west

Germany, they were sent to Biberach, in southern Germany where they remained until

the end of the war.  In June 1945 they were able to go to Zurich and live with Zahava’s

maternal grandparents. They all needed a great deal of rehabilitation and recuperation

and only returned to Amsterdam in November 1946. Jehudi had also survived his ordeal

in hiding – he was now living with relatives in Sweden. In January 1947 the family were

finally reunited in Amsterdam, where they began to rebuild their shattered lives.

When we were growing up, Zahava never spoke about her childhood experiences. I

can’t remember when I first realised that my mother was a Holocaust survivor and had

been through this unimaginable ordeal.  I have often wondered about her silence. Was

this a way of protecting herself from the memories of her past or was this a way of

protecting us as a family – not burdening us with what she had been through? Survivors

have different ways of dealing with trauma and I believe Zahava's coping mechanism

was to block off this part of her life. However, the silence was broken after Rosy’s death

in 2001. Zahava discovered a bag filled with documents, letters and photographs from

the war years and from the camps, that her mother had kept hidden. Zahava had been

unaware of the existence of any of these documents and was amazed that her mother

had kept them secret all these years. Why had Rosy gathered all these artefacts

documenting her ordeal? Why, instead of showing them to the family after the war, had

she tucked them away and hidden them at the back of a cupboard? Possibly like Zahava

– to put the past behind her. Zahava loved and respected Rosy and attributes her own

survival to being with her mother throughout the war. We are still not sure how and

where Rosy kept these documents during her ordeal. But uncovering this bag of

documents proved to be a watershed moment. Zahava started to talk about this period in

her life, culminating in her writing her memoir, ‘Fragments of a Lost Childhood’. She

translated all the documents and letters into English – no mean feat – and I suspect

reading the letters and looking at all the photographs unlocked many buried memories.

In recent years, when I asked Zahava why she hadn’t discussed her past with our family,

she told me that she didn’t want us to feel burdened with her past or to feel sorry for her.

She wanted to be hopeful and wanted us to be optimistic and look forward to the future,

not back to the past. This has always been her mantra – be positive – and this is still

how she speaks today despite all she has been through.

For the past 11 years, through our schools' programme, ‘Surviving the Holocaust’,

Zahava and I have been sharing her story with schoolchildren and adults of all

backgrounds and faiths throughout the UK and in Germany. The response has been

overwhelmingly encouraging. When we started our project I was more of the listener –

but over time I have become more involved in telling and retelling the story.

We all experience memory in different ways and we edit memory accordingly. Certain

events trigger memory, which I believe is what happened when my mother discovered

this trove of documents. It provided her with a deeper narrative and a physical narrative

of her experiences that allowed her to piece together and perhaps make sense of what

her family had experienced. Memories change and time has dimmed certain memories

– these days, she often remarks, ‘my memory isn’t as good as it was’. Maybe this is for

the best.

Why is it so important to tell our story today?

A study published in 2019 by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust revealed that millions of

Britons do not believe the Holocaust took place. One in 20 of those questioned thought

the Nazi genocide never happened while one in 12 felt the scale had been exaggerated.

Almost 45% polled did not know how many Jews were murdered by the Nazis.

That is why.

While Zahava is no longer able to retell her story, and her memories have faded over

time, I have decided to take on the mantle. Thankfully, I have not lived the experience.

But I feel it a duty to ensure that these stories are never forgotten. As a second-

generation survivor, I will continue to tell the story of the Kanarek family – this

remarkable story of survival against the odds. Some memories have faded over time, but

thankfully I have held on to the memories Zahava has related, which is why I am able to

continue to tell her story. I’m not entirely sure that the process of narrating Zahava's

story has helped her heal but I do know that she feels strongly about talking about this

period of history in the hope that such atrocities will not be repeated. She always speaks

about being ‘one of the lucky ones.' Her story, whilst devastating, is also full of hope.

Remarkably, Zahava doesn’t demonstrate any self-pity or bitterness at what she went

through. She is simply grateful that she and her family survived and has channelled all

her energies into her family in the hope that they would be blessed with a happy and

good life. Zahava’s story is one of survival, resilience, good luck and fortune. But it is

also a story of hope, courage, dignity, and strength.  

Hephzibah Rudofsky

Links:

Oткриване от посланик Марин Райков на изложбата “Небе от Звезди”