I’ve become a follower of a certain art exhibit that travels the state.

“Darkness into Life” is a work that combines the efforts of a photographer, a painter and nine Holocaust survivors who live in Birmingham. It has changed my perspective on many things, and has created more questions than answers.

The first time I saw the exhibit was with a friend at the Levite Jewish Community Center in Birmingham, where many of the Holocaust survivors were actually there mingling among the crowd. The second time was at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute with another friend, and most recently I saw it with my sister at Wallace State Community College in Hanceville.

Each time I see the paintings and photos, I am moved beyond words and am horrified yet again at what human beings can do to one another. Mitzi Levin has painted scenes from the Holocaust drawn from stories told by the nine survivors who agreed to participate in the project. Becky Seitel photographed the men and women as they live today. It’s easy to look at survivors eyes in the photographs and see that the memories are still strong.

Many of those folks speak in front of groups in order that the current generations do not forget.

Levin and Seitel donated their work to the Birmingham Holocaust Education Committee so that it can be used as a tool to teach people about the Holocaust, which is crucial today, 65 years after the end of World War II and the closing of the camps where six million Jews, political prisoners and others were killed.

I’ve stood at Auschwitz in Poland among the rubble of gas chambers that the Nazis destroyed as they tried to hide the evidence of their murderous acts. I’ve walked along the train track at Birkenau that brought families into the camps in what would be the last time they would ever be together. I spent two full days at the camps, walking across the grounds with my sense of horror increasing along with my knowledge of what had happened.

Keep an eye out for the exhibit and please, by all means, go see it. Learn more at bhamholocausteducation.org.