Obj. ID: 28626
Modern Jewish Art  Akselrod, Ditch

This work represents a scene of shooting of the Jews by the German soldiers during the World War II. A dark-brown stripe of a wide ditch passes diagonally from the top left corner of the picture to the right down one. On the left bank of th e ditch there stand two men in black uniforms of the officers of "SS". They are leading the execution. On the background, behind them there are figures ofthe shooting soldiers. The right bank of the ditch is filled with the figures of perishing people. On the left there stands an old woman waiting for her fate. Next to her there are a kneeling girl embracing her sitting mother in orange dress, a pair of lovers kissing each other before the death, a standing young woman collasping her child to her breast, a kneeling girl looking down into the ditch, an old man stretching his hand out towards the killers and a woman embracing him. Before these two there lies a body of a killed woman leaned over the edge of the ditch. On the background there are figures of women embracing each other. Bright, multi-coloured figures of the victims are contrasting with the dark red and brown colours of the ditch, with the uniforms of the Germans and with the dark green sky.