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Hedy (Pagremanski) Page, prominent artist and Long Beach resident, was born in Vienna, Austria in 1929 and narrowly escaped the Holocaust, taking refuge in Panama and then permanently in America by age 18. Not everyone was so lucky. Her husband’s mother and relatives succumbed to the terrors of Adolph Hitler. To keep alive the name of her mother-in-law, Anna Loewensohn, Hedy and her husband, Eric, are creating a book entitled Anna’s Legacy—a collection of drawings paired with essays by advocates for the disabled.
Eric, a concentration-camp survivor, was victimized because of his religion, though he recalls the disabled were also among the first groups targeted by the Nazi regime. “The book addresses the fact that if you have a handicap, you belong to another world,” says Hedy. “People don’t know how to approach those with difference of face or mannerism.” Each chapter will feature a special-needs organization, describing how it was founded, followed by a set of drawings that evoke the spirit of the group’s mission. Hedy will illustrate triumphant moments in the lives of special-needs people. “This is a book about heroes,” she explains. “We focus on how they have done amazing things for the world.” Included will be an index of doctors, outreach programs, and organizations for the disabled. Profits from sales of the book will be donated to the featured organizations.
Anna’s Legacy isn’t Hedy’s first attempt at capturing the human spirit. For more than 30 years she has been documenting New York City’s past and present, with 84 paintings in total. In one such work, her 1976 oil on canvas Yonah Schimmel Knish Bakery (installed at the Museum of the City of New York) recreates a day in the life of the Lower East Side—shoppers, shopkeepers, and passers-by. Of her work in realism, Hedy explains, “When people ask Eric how could the Nazis have done such cruelties to others, he answers, ‘When you see someone as sub-human, you allow yourself to do anything you wish to them.’ Because I also see this as a reason for the Holocaust, I paint only real people as if to say, ‘We exist!.’ When people are seen as individuals, they can’t be dismissed as faceless members of a group.
View Hedy’s artwork at www.followyourart.com and the “Breaking the Walls of Bias: Art by Survivors” exhibit opening May 17 at Galerie BelAge, 8 Moniebogue Lane in Westhampton Beach. Holocaust Days of Remembrance 2008: April 27 to May 4.
