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‘According to Heine’

Heinrich Heine, the 19th-century German Jewish poet, had warned, “Where books are burned, people will be burned.”

Mark Podwal
“According to Heine” (2020) by Mark Podwal. Credit: Mark Podwal.
Mark Podwal is an artist in New York. He has illustrated many of the books of his friend Elie Wiesel, and his work can be found in major museums, Jewish and non-Jewish, worldwide.

Heinrich Heine, the 19th-century German Jewish poet, had warned, “Where books are burned, people will be burned.” The Holocaust confirmed Heine’s prediction. The burning of books paved the way for mass murder on an inconceivable dimension.

Mark Podwal
“According to Heine” (2020) by Mark Podwal. Credit: Mark Podwal.

“According to Heine” is an acrylic and colored pencil drawing on paper from Robert Van Pelt’s An Atlas of Jewish Space, with 135 illustrations by Mark Podwal. (International Holocaust Remembrance Day is on Jan. 27, 2024.)

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