CBS is apparently going to do a "Dan Rather" on my mother tonight. My mother, who is a well-spoken Holocaust survivor, was interviewed a few months ago by 60 minutes about a bust that was made of her late sister. My aunt was murdered at the age of 4 in a concentration camp, and the stories are told that she was shot in the head by Dr. Mengele after he asked her to sing for him.
Her picture is displayed prominently in the NY Holocaust museum. Apparently, an artist saw it and was touched enough to sculpt a bust of her. 60 minutes interviewed my Mom about how she felt about it. She told her it looks terrible and nothing like her sister. So they cut her out.
Anyway, if you want to see the segment, it's on 60 Minutes tonight.
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I didn't catch the show, but here's the CBS article on the sculptor:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/01/18/60II/main667548.shtml
Thanks, Anne. I got this off the site:
"One photo was of Mala Silberberg, a 4-year-old girl with a beautiful singing voice who was shot to death in a Nazi concentration camp in 1944. Bender knew almost nothing about the girl, but he managed to add 50 years to her face.
""I really study and feel like I am her when I am working. Same way I would a fugitive or anybody else," says Bender. "You know, I look at her when she was a girl. And then age her according to her jowls and how I feel the flesh around the eyes is going to go and all, and try to give her this energy like, if she was alive today, she may be this wonderful singer."
"Her bust was one of his 10 sculptures that made it into the show, and it reminded Jones of why he went to Bender in the first place. "
My mother hated that bust. She said it was a fat old woman. Nothing like my skinny aunt, and nothing like any other relative in our family.
It didn't fit with what CBS was trying to say, so they cut out her interview.
Also, I found this here: http://www.emilsher.com/essays/sermons/wetell.htm
"If you're so inclined, reserve a few of those names for the 1.5 million children who were killed. Children like Mala Silberberg. Mala's picture was featured in a photo exhibition titled We Were Children Just Like You. She stands with a doll by her side, a stuffed animal by her feet. She has that trusting look that children so easily wear: open eyes, a raised, tilted head. When she was four years old she came face to face with Josef Mengele, who asked her to sing. Mengele was so moved by her voice that he gave young Mala a candy, then shot her through the head."
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