FAQ

What is the point of this site?

To show through art that attempts to rewrite the history of the Holocaust are not just pointless, but horribly cruel. I feel that an image of horror with the graphic imagery removed can, in its way, be just as horrible as the original because there is no denying what used to be there. You can whitewash a corpse, but it's still a corpse.

Where did you get the idea?

Several years ago, I interviewed Robert Clary -- Hogans Heroes actor and Holocaust survivor -- for a magazine article about his experiences in Nazi concentration camps. I was very struck by how horribly this kind, giving man was treated by people who knew nothing about him but his ancestry.

At one point in the interview, Clary asked what Jews could have done to deserve such treatment, and the sound of his voice when he asked that question will never leave that mind. I felt as if I had brushed the very edge of his feelings, and it was almost too much for me.

In preparation for the interview, I had read customer reviews of Clary's autobiography on Amazon.com. One comment said that the Holocaust never happened and that Clary was a liar who just said that he was sent to an extermination camp to help his acting career. It was unbelievably horrible to me that someone would not only deny the Holocaust in the face of so much evidence, but that they would also deny a man the right to his own past.

This is what inspired me to create Revisionist Photos as a demonstration of the evil of trying to remove personal truth from history. I feel like the revisionists are trying to complete the work the Nazis started by wiping the Holocaust's victims from memory.

If you are interested, you can read my interview with Robert Clary (and Star Trek's George Takei who was imprisoned in a relocation camp for Japanese Americans) here: Imprisoned by Their Own Countries (210k PDF)

You can buy Rober Clary's book From Holocaust to Hogan's Heroes at Amazon.com.

How were the photos created.

The original images were manipulated with Adobe Photoshop. With the exception of the final photograph in the series, all image data used in retouching the photo came from the photo itself. For this reason, in some photos it was impossible to eliminate evidence of the Holocaust completely. I believe that this detail enhances the point I am trying to make.

Doesn't it bother you to work with these images?

Yes.

Isn't it insulting to erase someone from a picture?

Yes, particularly when you are doing so to try and make the world forget that person. This is part of the message of Revisionist Photos.

Are these images in the public domain?

I have done my best to make sure that if any of the original images are not in the public domain I have the right to use them. The Revisionist Photos themselves, however, are protected by copyright.

How do you make money from this project?

I don't.

If this project inspires you to charity, I ask that you make a donation to the Simon Wiesenthal Center (www.wiesenthal.com) and that when you send them a check you write on the check that the funds should be directed to support the Simon Wiesenthal Center Library and Archives. The kind people at the Simon Wiesenthal Center Library were of invaluable help during the creation of this artwork. It would also be nice if you let them know that you visited this site.