Remember Me?

What happened to Sinaida?

Sometimes a photograph can hit you squarely between the eyes. With the portraits of children, displaced, orphaned or separated from their families, over on the 'remember me' section of the U.S Holocaust Memorial Museum website, each sad photograph hits home hard.

The museum has launched a project to find out what happened to 1100 children photographed at various locations including the Kloster Indersdorf, a children’s centre established in the immediate post war period by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) in Bavaria, Germany.

For me, one photograph stood out among the portraits. Little Sinaida Grussman holding the blackboard placard with her name chalked on, smiling at the camera as though it was for a school award photo. I find it just a heartbreaking photograph to look at. A photograph that bitterly encapsulates the fact that she had no-one. I do hope Sinaida found her family and went onto to have a great life. Hopefully we will find out.

The collection of child portraits can be found HERE. In just seven weeks, information for around 70 of the children photographed has been received. Hopefully many, many more will follow.