On the event of commemorating the opening of the new The Memory of the Jewish People and the Holocaust in Ukraine museum in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, Michael Rogatchi and The Rogatchi Foundation have donated Michael’s renowned work, Faces of the Holocaust triptych, to the new institution.
The triptych has been travelling all around the world and was shown during numerous exhibitions of the artist in Finland, Estonia, Poland, Lithuania, Italy, Israel, the United Kingdom, etc. The work is also widely publicised, and its images are being reprinted in art books, catalogues, and art publications widely available world-wide.
During the ceremony which took place in conjuction with the international symposium of museologists, Michael Rogatchi related to the audience the background of the work, and he spoke on the origin of his attachment to the theme of the Holocaust.
“In our family, nobody ever concealed the truth about the Holocaust from the children. I was four years old when I saw some figures, the number on the left hand of one of my grandmother’s friends. When asked, I was told that it was a concentration camp’s number of a prisoner; and was explained in more detail what had happened. At the time, our family was living in exile in Soviet Kazakhstan, in a very close proximity to a Soviet concentration camp, so the lesson stayed firm in me. And later on, I learned that some of our relatives – my family, as well as the family of my wife, who is from Dnepropetrovsk – had perished during the German occupation. Close relatives of my wife who were unable to escape the Nazi occupation were murdered in Dnepropetrovsk, too. This work is dedicated to all Jewish people, and is done in enlightened memory of members of our both families – Litovskies-Reis-Rogatchi and Chigrinskies-Jalovich-Bujanover,” – Michael told during the ceremony.
Michael Rogatchi told the audience during the ceremony that he feels he is “very privileged over the fact that his work will be present and displayed at this new great museum which is deep in concept, modern in its virtuality, and rich in material. One can see the highest professionalism here, and also a lot of attention to the details; the knowledge and the passion without which any museum cannot be successful and attractive to the public,” said the artist.
Michael Rogatchi also remembered how much he learned in the perception of history from his dear friend, the late Simon Wiesenthal whom Michael and his wife were privileged to know and work closely with for years. “I will always remember Simon Wiesenthal‘s words that ‘our main mission is to do, each by his own means, everything we can to continuing to remind people of the past and its facts and lessons.’ This is what I am trying to do in my work regarding the Holocaust, which is quite an essential part of Jewish history and Jewish life for me” – said the artist.