Artist Colors Black And White Photos Showing Holocaust Atrocities To Help People Better Understand What Happened

Many folks lack basic awareness of what happened to Jews during WWII, according to a survey issued on Holocaust Remembrance Day. This lack of knowledge is more prominent among millennials, which the study identified as people aged 18 to 34.

31%t of Americans and 41% of millennials believe that the Holocaust murdered two million or fewer Jews; the actual number is roughly six million. 41% of Americans, including 66% of millennials, have no idea what Auschwitz was. Furthermore, 52% of Americans incorrectly believe Hitler came to power through force.

One artist wanted to raise awareness. His name is Joachim West, a first-generation American of Spanish-Jewish descent. He was born in Connecticut in 1985 and currently resides in Galveston, Texas.

He decided to color old WWII photos that depict the horrors of the Holocaust to bring them closer to us. Unfortunately, black and white photos somehow make us distant. We believe it was ancient history, while it was just 80 years ago. In fact, if you ask your grandparents, they will tell you all about it because it happened in their time.

"I first started working on this historical photo project several years ago, using contemporary reference images to colorize and restore pictures from the Holocaust," West says.