Ardi Goldman, whose father survived the Warsaw Ghetto and the Buchenwald concentration camp, has realized a project on the site of the former Union Brewery in Frankfurt am Main that commemorates the people in Germany and the countries occupied by the Wehrmacht who, at high risk to themselves and their families, protected their Jewish fellow citizens from access by the Gestapo and SS.
The Path of Resistance, featuring 100 individuals and 18 resistance groups, is meant to show that it was possible to take action against the transports to the gas chambers. This fact is intended to offer hope for the future, for times when it again becomes necessary to protect a people from annihilation at the hands of the henchmen of a totalitarian ideology.
On display are, among other things, 100 bronze plaques for the 100 bearers of hope and 18 bronze ground reliefs for the 18 resistance groups. The ground reliefs were installed in place of old manhole covers and thus form a installation meant to last for eternity.
Alongside the Path of Resistance, there is an art trail featuring more than 70 artworks. However, the art here does not serve as decoration nor does it cater to a desire for beauty; instead, it functions as ‘mindbombs’—visible markers initiated by Goldman to signal a world that has gone off the rails. In a world that has become alien, a ‘today’ in which war, alienation, and hatred shape everyday life, the trail becomes a space of possibility, offering a way to equip oneself against historical distortion and prejudice.
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