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‘Revolting’: Artist Allegedly Uses Jewish Holocaust Victims’ Ashes to Create Painting

Dec. 6, 2012 8:59am Billy Hallowell

An art gallery in Sweden is coming under fire for its decision to display a controversial painting — one that is purportedly made out of Holocaust victims’ ashes (yes, you read that correctly). Artist Carl Michael von Hausswolff apparently assembled the work using the remains from victims who perished at the Majdanek concentration camp in Poland.

The Martin Bryder Gallery, which plans to open an exhibition on Dec. 15 featuring the controversial work, is doubling down and claiming that there are no ethical conundrums with displaying the painting. In fact, owner Martin Bryder appeared on Sverige Radio, where he defending the decision as having “no moral problem or flaw.”

As for Von Hausswolff, he apparently collected the ashes 20 years ago, however there is not much information regarding how he acquired them. The Telegraph claims that he “took the ashes during a 1989 visit to Majdanek.” A translation from a description on the gallery’s web site seems to indicate that the artist nabbed the ashes directly from cremation ovens during his visit.

Carl Michael von Hausswolff Uses Holocaust Victims Ashes to Create Painting

The Majdanek concentration camp mausoleum in Poland. (Photo Credot: CC BY-ND Kasia/Flickr)

“[Years later] I took out the jar with ashes and decided to ‘do something’ with it. I took out a number of watercolor paper and decided to only cover a rectangular area of these sheets with ashes mixed with water,” a translation of the description reads. ”The ash has followed me, always been there…as if the ash contains energies or memories or souls of people…people tortured, tormented and murdered by other people in one of the 19th century’s most ruthless wars.”

The museum at Majdanek is understandably outraged over the artwork and is speaking out against it, explicitly noting that staffers believe that the ashes were obtained illegally.

“We are deeply shocked and outraged by the information that the painting allegedly was made with the ashes of Majdanek victims,” a statement put out by the museum reads. “This action is an artistic provocation deserving only to be condemned.”

Furor has commenced following the gallery’s announcement. Salomon Shulman, considered a leader in Sweden’s Jewish community, called the act “revolting” and has spoken out against it fervently.

“Who knows. Maybe some of the ashes originated from my relatives,” he wrote to a local paper. “No one knows where they were deported: all my mother’s siblings and their children, and my grandparents.”

Around 79,000 lives were taken at the concentration camp, which operated from 1941 until 1944. The majority of those killed were Polish Jews, the Telegraph reports.

(H/T: JTA)

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Comments (61)

1776freedomofspeech
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 3:07pm
There is never an end to the depths that evil will go to make their point.

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Charybdis
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 2:42pm
Nazis were big on using tattooed flesh of Jewish victims for their lampshades. So it’s no surprise that a Godless Swede would do this.

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DZ-015
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 1:10pm
Those ashes are just as real as the pee pee Glen used for his artwork with the dashboard Obama. What holocaust site memorial would have cremains left in the ovens through 1989?

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- tzion
  Posted on December 6, 2012 at 2:37pm
  You’ve never been to Majdanik then. The soil there is still grey from all the ash. Look at the picture in the article. That mausoleum is nearly two stories high and contains one giant mound of ash.
  
  Report this comment
- WarMunger_Al
  Posted on December 6, 2012 at 4:15pm
  tzion-
  so again, why havent the ashes been given a burial if they are indeed human ash? Could very well be just incinerate rubbish. 78000 Jews were supposed to have been killed there, so they just leave their remains laying around? Seems pretty disrespectful to me. Someone should do a DNA test on the ash.
  
  Report this comment
- tzion
  Posted on December 6, 2012 at 6:51pm
  @Warmunger
  In that case the entire camp plus the nearby town should be made one giant mass grave. When a body was burned the ashes went up the chimneys and spread all over. I was there once and my white sneakers were a dark grey by the time I left from just walking on the wet ground. There’s nothing left to do DNA testing on. It’s all been swept all over and mixed together to the point that what little DNA survived the ovens is indistinguishable.
  
  As for burials, you’d have to dig a hole the size of a suburban house just to hold all that ash. And as I said the remains aren’t just laying around but, for the most part, have been gathered into a giant mound with the mausoleum built to contain and shelter it. One could compare it to a crypt.
  
  Report this comment
- RRFlyer
  Posted on December 7, 2012 at 10:58am
  So you people, instead of blaming the “artist” blame the dead People for having ashes left to be used.
  
  That’s right, never blame the person responsible.
  
  Report this comment
phillu
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 12:48pm
This is the most disgusting display of DISRESPECT! This shows how the Jewish people are a target in this perverted world we live in. The world is turning its back on Israel. WE MUST STAND WITH ISRAEL regardless of our Muslim President who is responsible for the situation in Egypt by providing the Muslim Brotherhood with our Tax dollars, when Morsi takes dictatorial power. You can see the similarities between Morsi and the Obaminations of Barack and his conduct toward Israel. This so-called artist should be investigated but his arrogance in defiling what could be someone’s family is the most callous and horrible thing to do to the surviving families of the HOLOCAUST. Remember History Repeats Itself, we must STAND WITH ISRAEL!

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Tom70
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 12:23pm
Well at least it wasn’t in the USA because it would have been paid for with our yax dollars. Just like the picture of Jeasus in a canning jar of piss.

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AllLost
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 12:06pm
As I struggle with my faith one thing that strikes me is how hated the Jews are in every culture. What exactly have they done to warrant this hatred? I just know the Bible said it would always be so for His people. The same is becoming true for Christians as well.

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- raymeo12
  Posted on December 6, 2012 at 4:15pm
  ALLLOST, I have always had that same Question and have never heard an answer to it. Why are the Jews persecuted so around the world, particularly in Europe??
  
  Report this comment
- fencekicker
  Posted on December 6, 2012 at 8:01pm
  Perhaps, this is yet more evidence of the existence of The Almighty. So it shall be written, so it shall be done and all that.
  
  Report this comment
schroeder123
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 11:42am
The guy is just making news. He full of bull,

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BlasberryStrat
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 11:00am
Now wait. There is no truth to this “art”. For what I gathered by the Occupy idiots chanting, is that the Holocaust was a made up fantasy?? So there can’t be any ashes from a “hoax” right? Well I guess now I’m going to have to go back to my great uncle’s grave and appologize. He must have been telling the truth and showing me REAL photos when he was one that went in to a camp and saved the people. Those silly Occupiers… Jokes on me…

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- WarMunger_Al
  Posted on December 6, 2012 at 4:16pm
  you can burn lots of things to make ash, where is the proof it is human ash?
  
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jessieH
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 10:37am
So, where is the “art”? I see no art. The guy’s a fraud.

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Zeke48
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 10:33am
This person is void of any feelings, however The Lord will decide what to do with him.

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Casey Klahn
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 10:16am
Just for starters, this artist doesn’t know that WW II was a 20th Century event. Not very smart, is he?

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- majasdad
  Posted on December 6, 2012 at 6:48pm
  Obviously a typo by either the translator or whoever wrote this article, moron.
  
  Report this comment
tothepoint
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 10:11am
The horror of this story…
13 million Jews, mentally ill, the maimed or deformed, gypsies, homosexuals, Christians, etc. were ruthlessly murdered by Hitler. All this was AFTER Germany established gun control in 1938. From 1939 to 1945 these victims were exterminated.
Now, we have those who lie about the murders or pretend it wasn’t a big deal.
Well folks, despite what you believe, your group could be next.
Gun control is a way to gain the power to exterminate groups of people.
They are calling for gun control in the US right now.
Wonder which group they are planning on exterminating, once they get it.

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- PATTY HENRY
  Posted on December 6, 2012 at 10:47am
  KEEP POSTING THIS!! Any acts that try to CONTROL groups are sure signs of this threat. Made by people who don’t believe in GOD and they don’t realize HOW SHORT life is …they strive to create
  a “Heavenly type of Life” here on earth…no strife, no problems… in other words: they try to play GOD.
  
  Considering we only use 1% of our brains….we can’t possibly figure out how to “control life on earth”
  What we CAN do is RESPECT the Ten Commandments; we can focus on improving ourselves, our families hence our lives. MAJOR NOTE: All throughout History, the major dictators, rulers,
  “bad guys” had serious mental problems, control issues, and little if any faith in GOD. Most people do NOT have the desire to CONTROL other people. Think about that.
  (This artist’s use of HUMAN remains is 1) Disrespectful 2) Controlling 3) insane)
  
  Report this comment
- Aijahlon
  Posted on December 6, 2012 at 12:36pm
  @TOTHEPOINT – (1) The Jews declared war on Germany first in 1933. (2) There wasn’t any extermination plan or holocaust against Jews (3) You’ve been lied to about Hitler your entire life. (4) You won’t believe any of these three things, because you’ve already been brainwashed by the Jewish media not to believe anything that doesn’t fit into their multi-billion dollar holocaust business narrative.
- tzion
  Posted on December 6, 2012 at 2:45pm
  @Aijahlon
  Jews declared war on Germany in 1933? And exactly who were these Jews? What sort of weapons did they utilize? The only thing I’ve seen regarding a “declaration of war” was the title of an article about a boycott. A boycott on on one country’s goods isn’t a declaration of war it is a form of free speech. Moreover, it is downright ignorant to believe that all Jews are responsible for the actions of only a few.
  
  You like to make grandiose claims but have yet to provide any sources or evidence. You insinuate there is a Jewish conspiracy yet can’t provide any details about this supposed shadow group. Until you actually provide hard facts your words are meaningless.
  
  Report this comment
- Aijahlon
  Posted on December 6, 2012 at 3:50pm
  @TZION – I’ve given you (i.e. TZION) plenty of hard facts in the past on The Blaze, all of which you’ve ignored. Since you believe that the Holocaust happened and 6 million Jews died, don’t make grandiose claims like you’ve always done, but this time provide your sources or evidence.
  You can’t use the OFFICIAL RED CROSS numbers of people who died in concentration camps to support your 6 million theory. You can’t use any World Almanac population numbers to support your 6 million theory. Instead of just saying that 6 million Jews died and everybody in their right mind knows it, just prove it to me instead. If it’s true, it should be easy to prove. Show me the proof that gas chambers existed that were used for mass killings at the camps. If Hitler had a policy for the extermination of the Jews, show me the order, law, etc…. Until you actually provide hard facts your words are meaningless.
  
  “Judea Declares War on Germany!” – Daily Express headline, March 24, 1933.
  
  “We Jews are going to bring a war on Germany.” – David A. Brown, National Chairman, United Jewish Campaign, 1934 (quoted in “I Testify Against The Jews” by Robert Edward Edmondson, page 188 and “The Jewish War of Survival” by Arnold Leese, page 52).
  
  “There is only one power which really counts. The power of political pressure. We Jews are the most powerful people on earth, because we have this power, and we know how to apply it.” – Vladimir Jabotinsky, Jewish Daily Bulletin, July 27, 1935.
  
  Report this comment
- Aijahlon
  Posted on December 6, 2012 at 4:15pm
  “Hitler will have no war (does not want war), but we will force it on him, not this year, but soon.” – Emil Ludwig Cohn in Les Annales, June, 1934 (also quoted in his book “The New Holy Alliance”).
  
  “We want to bring about a deep hatred for the Germans, for German soldiers, sailors, and airmen. We must hate until we win.” – Lord Beaverbrook, quoted in Niemals! by Heinrich Goitsch.
  
  “For months now the struggle against Germany is waged by each Jewish community, at each conference, in all our syndicates, and by each Jew all over the world. There is reason to believe that our part in this struggle has general value. We will trigger a spiritual and material war of all the world against Germany’s ambitions to become once again a great nation, to recover lost territories and colonies. But our Jewish interests demand the complete destruction of Germany. Collectively and individually, the German nation is a threat to us Jews.” – Vladimir Jabotinsky (founder of the Jewish terrorist group, Irgun Zvai Leumi) in Mascha Rjetsch, January, 1934 (also quoted in “Histoire de l’Armée Allemande” by Jacques Benoist-Mechin, Vol. IV, p. 303).
  
  “It is untrue that I or anyone else in Germany wanted war in 1939. It was wanted and provoked solely by international statesmen either of Jewish origin or working for Jewish interests. Nor had I ever wished that after the appalling first World War, there would ever be a second against either England or America.” – ADOLF HITLER, April,
  
  Report this comment
- M40-A1
  Posted on December 6, 2012 at 4:43pm
  @AIJAHLON,
  Nice try with the ‘Alinsky style’ revisionist history and the attempts at making the exception the rule. However I’ll stick with the U.S. military’s account of what they discovered and witnessed, along with all the film footage they returned with.
  
  Report this comment
- Aijahlon
  Posted on December 6, 2012 at 5:35pm
  @M40-A1 – You are aware that Alinsky was a radical, far-left, communist Jew, that played a major role in the Jewish dominated New-Left Movement in America during the 1960s? The same type of radical communist Jews were trying to destroy Germany from within, until Hitler came to power and saved Germany from becoming another Communist Bolshevik Russia. Your the one that has fallen for the post World War II propaganda revised history, not me.
  
  Report this comment
- tzion
  Posted on December 6, 2012 at 7:15pm
  @Aijahlon
  You want proof? How’s this: I wouldn’t have been born in this country if it didn’t happen. My great-grandparents had to flee Germany with their entire families because of the oppressive Nazi regime. There are hundreds if not thousands of testimonies from those who witnessed the atrocities first hand. Yad Vashem has collected over 4 million names including as much biographical information as they could find. The amount of evidence is overwhelming. I’ve personally heard the stories from the survivors themselves. You want proof the gas chambers and ovens existed? Some still do. Majdanik, the camp featured in this article has both the gas chamber and crematorium still intact along with many of the barracks. I know dozens of people who lost members of their own families. Care to explain what happened to them?
  
  As for your “support” for a Jewish war against Germany, name one act of war committed by Jews against Germany. Show me the trial where these Jews were sentenced. And then, when you’ve finished, explain to me how the words of a handful of Jews, most of whom weren’t even near Germany, justified the murder of nearly 6 million men, women, and children. And then explain why an addition 5 million people, including 3 million Poles, had to perish.
  
  Report this comment
- Aijahlon
  Posted on December 6, 2012 at 11:12pm
  @TZION – Instead of factual evidence and sources, all you’ve given me is personal sob stories. “My great-grandparents had to flee Germany” (boo hoo), “I know dozens of people who lost members of their own families.” (boo hoo). Your personal life isn’t valid proof to me of anything, I don’t know you.
  (1) You did not show any proof to support your 6 million number, unless you want me to believe Israel’s official memorial to the alleged Jewish victims of the Holohoax (yeah, no conflict of interest there). (2) As for the alleged “gas chamber” at Majdanek; the Leuchter Report, David Cole (Jew), and many others have already shown it to be a fraud. (3) You’re obviously a Zionist Jew, but emotions are not facts, so either put up or shut up.
  
  Report this comment
- Aijahlon
  Posted on December 7, 2012 at 12:41am
  @TZION – Thanks for the touching personal stories, but emotions and hard factual evidence are two separate things. I’ll give you an example of what I’m talking about regarding what you said about Majdanek. Here is a link to a free book filled with an exhaustive study on Majdanek: Concentration Camp Majdanek—A Historical and Technical Study (3rd, corrected and expanded edition) http://holocausthandbooks.com/dl/05-ccm.pdf
  
  This is what I mean when I say evidence, and thus far you haven’t provided me with any.
  
  Report this comment
dflocks80
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 10:09am
Mr. Artist needs to check up on his history. WWII was definitely a product of the 20th century.

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yanki161
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 10:07am
I, too, find it difficult to believe he was able to get holocaust ashes in the 80′s. That said I’d like to see the piece he created. I’d like to know if the subject matter was the holocaust. That would make a great deal of difference to me. What if you cremated a loved one then had their portrait painted with their ashes? Perhaps ghoulish yet a creative way to honor the dead, a way to live on forever. Better than sitting in an urn. The idea COULD have merit. But since I am dubious of his claim and don’t know what the finished piece looks like, it’s hard to make a judgement.

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Thornyrose13
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 9:56am
If he wants to use human ashes, I recommend he have himself cremated. Then he has informed consent. Otherwise, his actions are criminal. Even if they are faux human ashes, it’s the same principle as a criminal buying something he believes is a real illegal drug. Even though he buys fake drugs, the intent is the defining factor. And I do hope this guy ends up on one of the government “no fly” lists.

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runningthebull
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 9:52am
This song comes to mind
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22CGlF7l5MI

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NONCENTS
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 9:50am
Seems like evil is having to go farther and father to produce a shock. What will the world be like when things like this are also commonplace?

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TEARS FOR AMERICA
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 9:49am
Our world is becoming a callous, oozing wound of selfishness and greed…

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ArmedAndReallyPissed
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 9:22am
PS, if this ignorant TURD is admitting to stealing these ashes, should he not go to prison ?

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- ashestoashes
  Posted on December 6, 2012 at 9:34am
  I wonder how he could tell the 6 million Jew ashes from the 7 million Catholic..Christian..union workers..mentally ill..handicapped..dissident and gypsy ashes?
  
  Report this comment
- ArmedAndReallyPissed
  Posted on December 6, 2012 at 9:39am
  He can use the FBI labs to tell the difference. I hear the CLOTUS just hired him for a foreign affairs position.
  
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- tzion
  Posted on December 6, 2012 at 11:32am
  @Ashes
  What does it matter? He had no right to use the ashes whatsoever. If this is considered okay why what’s wrong with digging up a corpse from a cemetery. God only knows how many Jewish cemeteries were ruined by the Nazis to the point that no one even remembers where they are. If he’d used own mother’s ashes I’d be sick enough. This is almost unforgivable.
  
  I’ve personally been to Majdanik so I have no doubt he could have acquired the ashes from there. After my visit my white sneakers had turned to a dark grey because the entire camp is covered in human ash. But what really turned my stomach was the fact there was a bathtub in the Majdanik crematorium, the water for which was heated by the ovens themselves. Explain to me the difference between using human remains for heating bath water and using them for paint.
  
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- WarMunger_Al
  Posted on December 6, 2012 at 4:21pm
  TZION-
  no way you walked through human ash. The weather would have dispersed and blended it into soil a long time ago.
  
  Report this comment
- tzion
  Posted on December 6, 2012 at 7:29pm
  @Warmunger
  I can only describe what I saw. My shoes were white upon entering and grey upon departing. It was muddy but mud alone isn’t grey. I don’t believe it was pure ash I was walking through. Rather it was likely ash that had mixed with the soil only the ground became so saturated that it would change the very color of the soil. Also, that mound of ash I mentioned isn’t entirely enclosed either.
  
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ArmedAndReallyPissed
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 9:21am
No matter if this “artist” really did use ashes or not…….IF no one buys his crap AND IF no one pays to see his crap, he will fade away.

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ares338
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 9:18am
Hack artist uses bogus ashes to try to claim fame. What a maroon!

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WarMunger_Al
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 9:15am
I raise the BS flag on this. How would he get actual holocaust ashes in the 80′s? Would they not have already removed the ashes for proper burial by then? The world is full of crap.

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CALL ME SNAKE
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 9:11am
I find this no different than if the artist had used the blood, organs and body parts from Jews recently killed in Israel. The artist needs to be committed if he’s hearing voices in his head.

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DougHuffman
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 9:05am
Does anyone else understand the original significance of ‘von’ as a nobiliary particle?

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- BlackCrow
  Posted on December 6, 2012 at 9:13am
  Order of the Teutonic Knights.
  
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SAVETHEUNION
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 9:04am
No comments needed here. It is beyond comprehension.

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- ltb
  Posted on December 6, 2012 at 11:15am
  You can almost rest assured that these same morons would be screaming bloody murder if the “artist” had used the ashes of black slaves or Muslims who had been burned at the stake during the crusades.
  
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