History books are filled with black and white photos, but one Brazilian artist is using color to add new context to the past.
The Auschwitz Memorial’s Twitter account filled in the clues about the mysterious girl’s past. According to Holocaust survivor Wilhelm Brasse’s testimony, he took the photograph right after Kwoka was beaten. The marks on her face are still visible. In color, her broken lips seem more prominent than in the old black and white photo.
Marina Amaral (@marinamaral2) a Brazilian artist, an expert in colorization of b&w pictures, created a colorized version of the registration image of Czesława Kwoka. 4/4 pic.twitter.com/Dp18k30HZm
— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) March 12, 2018
The photo has had a profound effect on many viewers. Some of whom have shared their responses on Twitter, mostly of empathy at the young girl’s fate or the horror of her treatment before the photo was taken.
Film Critic Roger Ebert once called movies a “powerful empathy machine,” and that theory proves true in the outpouring of support for Kwoka. “I can walk in somebody else’s shoes. I can see what it feels like to be a member of a different gender, a different race, a different economic class, to live in a different time, to have a different belief,” Ebert said.
So here’s the photo of a young girl. Her cheeks sunken, her eyes wide in confusion or fear. Her clothes are too big, and her hair is cut close enough to her skull that you can see her scalp. You can’t help but want to help her, but it’s too late.
Her image is an important one to remember next time we see a child on the news for surviving war or persecution.
