GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A West Michigan family is working to preserve our collective memory of the human atrocities committed during the Holocaust, to ensure that future generations are aware of the full breadth of everything that happened.
Steve and Linda Pestka worked to help bring the 'Ways to Say Goodbye' sculpture to the Frederick Meijer Gardens recently, as part of their West Michigan Holocaust Partnership efforts.
Their father, Henry Pestka, survived the Holocaust and would resettle his life here in West Michigan, after the war was over.
The pair is helping to grow the West Michigan Holocaust memorial— a publicly available online portal for collecting and sharing first and second-hand accounts of the Holocaust.
On Wednesday, the West Michigan Holocaust Partnership will host The Henry Pestka Art and Poetry Competition, in which over 80 submissions were submitted.
The sculpture at the Meijer Gardens is a reflection on the lost and broken aspects of humanity that emerged from the Holocaust, a chance for viewers of the piece to reflect on those who never made it out of the camps.
“You can see the glass, which is representative of Kristallnacht, which was, in many ways the beginning of the Holocaust,” Linda told FOX 17
Kristallnacht happened in November of 1938.
Steve continues, "It was an organized effort by the German government to encourage people to go out and beat up Jews, destroy their property, destroy synagogues, burn synagogues to the ground, and engage in just generalized acts of extreme violence.”
The pieces of glass atop the sculpture representative of the physical violence that occurred during Kristallnacht, present forever.
Not to be overlooked, the broken glass lives in the sky as a testament to growth and overcoming tragedy.
Their father, Henry Pestka, was a builder as a young man in Poland.
During the Nazi invasion of World War II, he and his family were imprisoned in concentration camps, spending at least some of their time in Auschwitz.
As the family story goes, Henry kept himself alive in the camps by convincing guards that he was an accomplished painter.
He eventually escaped the camps in the midst of a forced death march, eventually discovered by members of the Free French Army. He joined up with the Polish Battalion of their forces.
In 1946, he immigrated to Grand Rapids, taking night classes at Union High School to begin his new life in the United States.
A friend of his father's from Poland gave him his first job here.
Steve and Linda, his children, are now making it their mission to preserve the memories and stories still held by survivors of the Holocaust.
The sculpture, their online collection of stories and the now-annual arts competition are the first few steps of their journey.
They hope to grow the project in coming years, to make sure the Holocaust is remembered for what it truly was.
“There are attempts all the time to either minimize the Holocaust, to say these are normal things that happen in war, or deny that it even existed, that we felt that we had an obligation not just to our father, but all of those who perished, had suffered, to do what we could to make sure this never happens against the Jews or any other group of people,” Steve told FOX 17 on Monday.
Linda continues, “It's not okay to stand by and let things happen that are wrong, and just get overwhelmed by all of the arguing that happens sometimes between groups, but to have your own identity and your own understanding of what is right and what is wrong, and why those things matter.”
You can explore the stories already collected or follow their future efforts at the West Michigan Holocaust Memorial website.
