On view October 20–November 6 in Ann and Andrew Tisch Park of Washington University, this exhibition by German-Italian photographer and filmmaker Luigi Toscano comprises more than 90 larger-than-life portraits of Holocaust survivors from Europe, Israel, and the United States, including twelve people from St. Louis.

Lest We Forget offers an opportunity to commemorate survivors at a moment when accurate collective knowledge about the Holocaust is at a historic low and distortion and denial of the atrocities, as well as public expressions of anti-Semitism, are rising alarmingly. The placards that accompany the photographs tell stories of suffering and loss but also resilience and humanity, providing a window into the experience of the last living survivors of the Holocaust.

Previously presented in seventeen cities—among them Berlin, Brussels, Geneva, Kyiv, New York, Vienna, and Washington, DC—this exhibition traveled to UNESCO headquarters in Paris as part of the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust on January 27, 2021.

Read the story in the Source

Read the story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Lest We Forget is presented at Ann and Andrew Tisch Park courtesy of Eliot and Dee Dee Simon and Conversation Builds Character.

Luigi Toscano (German, b. 1972) is a photographer and filmmaker. Since 2015, following a visit to the Auschwitz concentration camp, the artist has dedicated himself to Holocaust remembrance. He has photographed more than 400 survivors and victims of Nazi persecution internationally and has received numerous awards and recognitions, including the designation of UNESCO Artist for Peace (2021). His documentary film on the project, Lest We Forget, was nominated for the German Human Rights Film Award (2020).