DAVID'Strain

David Eckstein was a holocaust survivor, whom I met via his friend and neighbor, Daniela Passal, in Woodstock, New York during the early seventies. He was a talented illustrator, but dropped out of Madison Avenue, moved two hours outside Gotham, and was pursuing his muse when we met. In addition to our friendship we shared a love for hiking and spent many days exploring the mountain tops in the region. It was David's skill as an artist that increased his chances for survival in the death camps during the war. The trains that moved prisoners from camp to camp often passed through German villages where they were photographed by the residents. After the war the government collected these photos and made them part of a huge data base. Using war-time records they were able to determine who was aboard many of these trains. The records and the photographic evidence were made available to the survivors. David possessed four negatives, photos that had been taken of the trains he was on as he and others were shuttled throughout the death camp archipelago. © Charles O. Slavens 2007

The iconic photo of David Eckstein just below was taken by Roman Vishniac in Carpathian Ruthenia around 1935. It is copyrighted and is used with the permission of Mara Vishniac Kohn and through the courtesy of the International Center of Photography..

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