Alan Gordon Illustrations-Holocaust Sketchbook 1

Beyond the everyday reasons, I was always interested about this event in history. My Father served in World War II as a heavy machinery specialist, and delivered trucks and bulldozers to the area of Bergen-Belsen. He would never speak much about that, or anything else about the war. But that event seemed to always be present when the war came up in conversation. My father passed away in 1993, and with him went many elements of personal history.

As stated on other pages, that loss of personal and social history profoundly dictates everything that I produce as art. What kick started this particular book was a documentary entitled: "The Rise and Fall of Dr. Death". It is a story of a failed dentist (with really bad teeth) who makes a suggestion to improve the kill power of the electric chair (I think it took place in Texas...surprise!). It turns out his suggestion is a good one, and the dentist gains a reputation for understanding capital punishment (despite having no background). The dentist is eventually contacted by a client in Toronto that is in a lawsuit with Canada claiming that the Holocaust never occurred. The dentist is retained as an expert for the Klan based group, and sent to Europe to find evidence to support the revisionist theory. His conclusion is based on dirt samples from one camp, and found to be in extreme error (because he is not a scientist). The Klan loses the case, and the dentist returns to a failed life.

I find the Holocaust revisionist movement to be nothing short of an embarrassment of a twisted idea to humanity. That feeling of embarrassment alone made me begin to draw out some ideas, and then the book took over my life. Asleep and awake -it was all I really thought about for nearly 3 months. I read books, rented documentaries, searched for photo references- and I had nightmares. Lots of nightmares.

What follows is the book. Not so much as art, but more as expression of what the Holocaust means in history, and more importantly to me. As stated on other pages, I react to something through my artwork- as a way to right a wrong in society.