San Francisco, CA (Monday, April 2, 2019) – On April 17, 2019 at noon, German-Italian artist Luigi Toscano will unveil 78 large-scale portraits of Holocaust survivors at Civic Center Plaza in San Francisco as part of a compelling arts and remembrance project entitled LEST WE FORGET, presented by the Goethe-Institut San Francisco and the German Consulate of the Federal Republic of Germany, San Francisco. Luigi Toscano has visited and taken portraits of almost 300 Holocaust survivors in the United States, Germany, Ukraine, Russia, Israel, Belarus, Austria and the Netherlands so far.
San Francisco Recreation and Park General Manager Phil Ginsburg says: “The San Francisco Recreation and Park Department is honored to host Lest We Forget in the heart of our city, Civic Center Plaza. The Holocaust must never be lost to history—it is critical that future generations learn how unchecked bigotry and indifference can lead to genocide. Luigi Toscano’s life affirming photographs of survivors shows the beauty of their humanity and resilience. Civic Center Plaza, known for showcasing our City’s beauty and resilience, couldn’t be more fitting.”
On May 2, 2019, Yom Ha’Shoah or Holocaust Memorial Day, German Consul General, Hans-Ulrich Südbeck, the Director of the Goethe-Institut, Sigrid Savelsberg, as well the artist himself and a number of the portrayed survivors will gather with many other partners and supporters of this project in order to acknowledge this important commemoration and honor the victims of the Holocaust.
“The portrayed survivors are the faces and voices of the culture of remembrance,” says Toscano. “LEST WE FORGET is much more than just looking back at our dark past: It urges everyone to confront the past in order to ensure that nothing like the Holocaust ever happens again.”
Among the 15 photographs that were taken in the Bay Area is one of Ben Stern, Holocaust camp survivor and activist. Stern remarks, “I was liberated on May 8, 1945, but I wasn’t free until I let go of hatred. It begins with hate speech, that if unchecked, leads to the destruction of democracy and humanity. I know what happens when it’s too late.”
Toscano is a photographer and filmmaker from Mannheim, Germany, where LEST WE FORGET was presented for the first time in 2015 to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.
In 2018, LEST WE FORGET was brought to the United States. The exhibition was first shown in January in New York City where it was installed at the United Nations headquarters to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day. In April, LEST WE FORGET was shown in Washington, DC where more than 120 portraits were placed along the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
In conjunction with the photographic exhibit, the Goethe-Institut and our community partners will present numerous educational programs, film screenings at the San Francisco Public Library, a speaker’s panel, public tours and other events throughout San Francisco. Please visit goethe.de/sf/lestweforget for the full program and more information.
The exhibit is presented by the Goethe-Institut San Francisco and the German Consulate of the Federal Republic of Germany San Francisco, with heartfelt gratitude to Barbro and Bernard Osher for their generosity. With appreciation for the support of the Consulate General of Israel, the Consulate General of Italy, and the Italian Cultural Center. Special thanks to the San Francisco Arts Commission and San Francisco Recreation and Parks and numerous community partners.
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San Francisco Recreation and Park General Manager Phil Ginsburg says: “The San Francisco Recreation and Park Department is honored to host Lest We Forget in the heart of our city, Civic Center Plaza. The Holocaust must never be lost to history—it is critical that future generations learn how unchecked bigotry and indifference can lead to genocide. Luigi Toscano’s life affirming photographs of survivors shows the beauty of their humanity and resilience. Civic Center Plaza, known for showcasing our City’s beauty and resilience, couldn’t be more fitting.”
On May 2, 2019, Yom Ha’Shoah or Holocaust Memorial Day, German Consul General, Hans-Ulrich Südbeck, the Director of the Goethe-Institut, Sigrid Savelsberg, as well the artist himself and a number of the portrayed survivors will gather with many other partners and supporters of this project in order to acknowledge this important commemoration and honor the victims of the Holocaust.
“The portrayed survivors are the faces and voices of the culture of remembrance,” says Toscano. “LEST WE FORGET is much more than just looking back at our dark past: It urges everyone to confront the past in order to ensure that nothing like the Holocaust ever happens again.”
Among the 15 photographs that were taken in the Bay Area is one of Ben Stern, Holocaust camp survivor and activist. Stern remarks, “I was liberated on May 8, 1945, but I wasn’t free until I let go of hatred. It begins with hate speech, that if unchecked, leads to the destruction of democracy and humanity. I know what happens when it’s too late.”
Toscano is a photographer and filmmaker from Mannheim, Germany, where LEST WE FORGET was presented for the first time in 2015 to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.
In 2018, LEST WE FORGET was brought to the United States. The exhibition was first shown in January in New York City where it was installed at the United Nations headquarters to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day. In April, LEST WE FORGET was shown in Washington, DC where more than 120 portraits were placed along the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
In conjunction with the photographic exhibit, the Goethe-Institut and our community partners will present numerous educational programs, film screenings at the San Francisco Public Library, a speaker’s panel, public tours and other events throughout San Francisco. Please visit goethe.de/sf/lestweforget for the full program and more information.
The exhibit is presented by the Goethe-Institut San Francisco and the German Consulate of the Federal Republic of Germany San Francisco, with heartfelt gratitude to Barbro and Bernard Osher for their generosity. With appreciation for the support of the Consulate General of Israel, the Consulate General of Italy, and the Italian Cultural Center. Special thanks to the San Francisco Arts Commission and San Francisco Recreation and Parks and numerous community partners.
San Francisco, CA (Monday, April 2, 2019) – On April 17, 2019 at noon, German-Italian artist Luigi Toscano will unveil 78 large-scale portraits of Holocaust survivors at Civic Center Plaza in San Francisco as part of a compelling arts and remembrance project entitled LEST WE FORGET, presented by the Goethe-Institut San Francisco and the German Consulate of the Federal Republic of Germany, San Francisco. Luigi Toscano has visited and taken portraits of almost 300 Holocaust survivors in the United States, Germany, Ukraine, Russia, Israel, Belarus, Austria and the Netherlands so far.
San Francisco Recreation and Park General Manager Phil Ginsburg says: “The San Francisco Recreation and Park Department is honored to host Lest We Forget in the heart of our city, Civic Center Plaza. The Holocaust must never be lost to history—it is critical that future generations learn how unchecked bigotry and indifference can lead to genocide. Luigi Toscano’s life affirming photographs of survivors shows the beauty of their humanity and resilience. Civic Center Plaza, known for showcasing our City’s beauty and resilience, couldn’t be more fitting.”
On May 2, 2019, Yom Ha’Shoah or Holocaust Memorial Day, German Consul General, Hans-Ulrich Südbeck, the Director of the Goethe-Institut, Sigrid Savelsberg, as well the artist himself and a number of the portrayed survivors will gather with many other partners and supporters of this project in order to acknowledge this important commemoration and honor the victims of the Holocaust.
“The portrayed survivors are the faces and voices of the culture of remembrance,” says Toscano. “LEST WE FORGET is much more than just looking back at our dark past: It urges everyone to confront the past in order to ensure that nothing like the Holocaust ever happens again.”
Among the 15 photographs that were taken in the Bay Area is one of Ben Stern, Holocaust camp survivor and activist. Stern remarks, “I was liberated on May 8, 1945, but I wasn’t free until I let go of hatred. It begins with hate speech, that if unchecked, leads to the destruction of democracy and humanity. I know what happens when it’s too late.”
Toscano is a photographer and filmmaker from Mannheim, Germany, where LEST WE FORGET was presented for the first time in 2015 to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.
In 2018, LEST WE FORGET was brought to the United States. The exhibition was first shown in January in New York City where it was installed at the United Nations headquarters to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day. In April, LEST WE FORGET was shown in Washington, DC where more than 120 portraits were placed along the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
In conjunction with the photographic exhibit, the Goethe-Institut and our community partners will present numerous educational programs, film screenings at the San Francisco Public Library, a speaker’s panel, public tours and other events throughout San Francisco. Please visit goethe.de/sf/lestweforget for the full program and more information.
The exhibit is presented by the Goethe-Institut San Francisco and the German Consulate of the Federal Republic of Germany San Francisco, with heartfelt gratitude to Barbro and Bernard Osher for their generosity. With appreciation for the support of the Consulate General of Israel, the Consulate General of Italy, and the Italian Cultural Center. Special thanks to the San Francisco Arts Commission and San Francisco Recreation and Parks and numerous community partners.
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San Francisco Recreation and Park General Manager Phil Ginsburg says: “The San Francisco Recreation and Park Department is honored to host Lest We Forget in the heart of our city, Civic Center Plaza. The Holocaust must never be lost to history—it is critical that future generations learn how unchecked bigotry and indifference can lead to genocide. Luigi Toscano’s life affirming photographs of survivors shows the beauty of their humanity and resilience. Civic Center Plaza, known for showcasing our City’s beauty and resilience, couldn’t be more fitting.”
On May 2, 2019, Yom Ha’Shoah or Holocaust Memorial Day, German Consul General, Hans-Ulrich Südbeck, the Director of the Goethe-Institut, Sigrid Savelsberg, as well the artist himself and a number of the portrayed survivors will gather with many other partners and supporters of this project in order to acknowledge this important commemoration and honor the victims of the Holocaust.
“The portrayed survivors are the faces and voices of the culture of remembrance,” says Toscano. “LEST WE FORGET is much more than just looking back at our dark past: It urges everyone to confront the past in order to ensure that nothing like the Holocaust ever happens again.”
Among the 15 photographs that were taken in the Bay Area is one of Ben Stern, Holocaust camp survivor and activist. Stern remarks, “I was liberated on May 8, 1945, but I wasn’t free until I let go of hatred. It begins with hate speech, that if unchecked, leads to the destruction of democracy and humanity. I know what happens when it’s too late.”
Toscano is a photographer and filmmaker from Mannheim, Germany, where LEST WE FORGET was presented for the first time in 2015 to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.
In 2018, LEST WE FORGET was brought to the United States. The exhibition was first shown in January in New York City where it was installed at the United Nations headquarters to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day. In April, LEST WE FORGET was shown in Washington, DC where more than 120 portraits were placed along the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
In conjunction with the photographic exhibit, the Goethe-Institut and our community partners will present numerous educational programs, film screenings at the San Francisco Public Library, a speaker’s panel, public tours and other events throughout San Francisco. Please visit goethe.de/sf/lestweforget for the full program and more information.
The exhibit is presented by the Goethe-Institut San Francisco and the German Consulate of the Federal Republic of Germany San Francisco, with heartfelt gratitude to Barbro and Bernard Osher for their generosity. With appreciation for the support of the Consulate General of Israel, the Consulate General of Italy, and the Italian Cultural Center. Special thanks to the San Francisco Arts Commission and San Francisco Recreation and Parks and numerous community partners.
show less
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