"Multiply by Six Million - Portraits and Stories of Holocaust Survivors"

Identifier
irn502362
Language of Description
English
Alt. Identifiers
  • 1995.A.1205
  • 2020.332
Dates
1 Jan 1995 - 31 Dec 2006
Level of Description
Item
Languages
  • English
Source
EHRI Partner

Extent and Medium

boxes

oversize boxes

3

9

Creator(s)

Biographical History

Evvy Eisen is a photographer and teacher in the San Francisco Bay area. She specializes in environmental portraits, often involving socially relevant issues. Eisen began the Legacy: Portraits of Holocaust Survivors project in 1992. The project is meant to “create images of human courage, stamina and creativity born of the most desperate circumstances.” Eisen met with each survivor three times, in order to know them and their personal histories. During these visits, she photographed them in black and white silver gelatin prints, in their home and utilizing natural light. Accompanied with each portrait is a biography, which details the hardships that each survivor had to face during the Holocaust.

Archival History

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Acquisition

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum collection, gift of Evvy Eisen

The collection was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum by Evvy Eisen.

Scope and Content

Multiply by Six Million - Portraits and Stories of Holocaust Survivors, formerly entitled "Legacy: Portraits of Holocaust Survivors" was a project began by Evvy Eisen in 1992, which sought to photograph Holocaust survivors and accompany their portraits with a biography of their life during the Holocaust. The portraits are taken in black and white silver gelatin prints. While most of the portraits are 11"x14", some of the later portraits are 8"x11." The biographies are generally several pages long, and tell the stories of each individual’s story through the Holocaust. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum accepted Eisen’s first donation in 1995, and accepted donations annually until 2006. The Legacy: Portraits of Holocaust Survivors collection consists of two series: biographies and portraits. The biographies series contains all the biographical histories that are meant to accompany the portraits of the survivors. Each biography is generally several pages long and written by the survivors themselves. The biographies are arranged by year, and individual survivors can be linked to their portraits in series two. The portraits series contains mainly large, mounted 11x14 silver gelatin black and white portraits of Holocaust survivors. The 2004 portraits are not mounted, and the 2005 and 2006 portraits are 8x11. The portraits are arranged annually, with each box containing one year of photographs, with the exception of boxes 11 and 12. The portraits are arranged within each box alphabetically by last name. Each name can be found in the container list below. The accompanied biographies can be found in series one, in the folder of the matching year.

System of Arrangement

Legacy: Portraits of Holocaust Survivors is arranged as two series: •Series 1: Biographies, 1995-2006 •Series 2: Portraits, 1995-2006

Conditions Governing Reproduction

Copyright Holder: Evvy Eisen

People

Subjects

This description is derived directly from structured data provided to EHRI by a partner institution. This collection holding institution considers this description as an accurate reflection of the archival holdings to which it refers at the moment of data transfer.