Logos for The Auschwitz Institute

The Chevra Lomdei Mishnayot synagogue is the only surviving synagogue in the town of Oświęcim from before the Second World War. After the end of the war, the liberation of the nearby Auschwitz concentration camp, the nationalization of the building by the communist government during the Cold War, and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, in 1998, the Polish government repatriated the building to its Jewish community. The Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation restored the building to a pre-war condition based on the memories of Holocaust survivors. The building was reopened in 2000, where it continues to serve as an active synagogue and a part of the Auschwitz Jewish Center’s permanent exhibition on the Jewish community in the town of Oświęcim.

In 2001, Auschwitz Jewish Center founder Fred Schwartz asked me to design a logo for the foundation. I created this broken Star of David, forming an “A” and a “J” out of the pieces that are undamaged. 

 

In 2006, Schwartz founded the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation, an organization dedicated to training governments in long-term genocide prevention. I volunteered my time to create this logo for the Institute, showing rows of people, different from each other, yet standing together.

 

In 2018, I visited Auschwitz for the first time and saw my logo in the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum’s education center. To this day, I still get goosebumps seeing the image on the grounds where such a tragedy took place.

 

In 2020, the Auschwitz Institute changed its name to the Auschwitz Institute for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities. It chose this new name to better reflect its mission of endeavoring to prevent any future mass atrocities across the globe. It operates from offices here in New York, where it partners with the United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Bucharest, Romania; Kampala, Uganda; and Oświęcim, Poland. I was more than happy to tweak the logo to reflect the new name. 

 

Last week, I received this letter from the Institute. It moved me deeply, so I wanted to share it with you. I am honored that my art may contribute in any way to the critically necessary work of preventing these terrible crimes for generations to come.

 

Refugees

This is a photograph showing a Serbian woman, Milica Tepić, escaping her village with her two children just before Ustaše (a Croatian fascist) burned it. The photo was taken in January 1944 by George Skrigin, who was part of the partisan resistance and accidentally stumbled upon Milica. 

Milica died in 1949. Her husband, Branko, a partisan resistance fighter, was hanged by the Nazis in 1942. Like his father, the little boy on Milica's back was called Branko. He was born one month after his father's death. He died in 2022 at the age of 81. His sister Dragica died in 1983.

The photograph as a witness of suffering and struggle for survival is one of the exhibits in the Holocaust Museum in Auschwitz.

This powerful image embedded itself in my memory at a young age. Today whenever I hear about refugees or displaced people, this image comes to my mind. 

What would have happened to her and her children if she was not allowed to escape the horrors behind her? What would have happened if she was forced to go back? Thinking of today's refugee and displaced people situation, I decided to create this visual essay using Milica's image.

 

Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation Logo

I was extremely proud to see that logos which one I design for the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation are used in the education room inside Auschwitz camp. Whenever I remember that moment, I still get goosebumps.

Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation

We are very proud to be listed alongside prominent institutions such as the United Nations,
as partners of the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation.

Here you can find out more about important work of the
Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation.