In Their Shoes & Gloves

Our generation is lucky to have lived after the Third Reich (the period in Germany between 1933 and 1945). We never experienced the human suffering brought about by war, discrimination and violence. We are so blessed to be living a comfortable life, and I guess we owe it partly to those who have suffered and died during those hard and difficult times.

An Installation Art of some 400 shoes and gloves inside a church ruin at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum.

This is the Hand and Foot, an installation art by German Artist Raffael Rheinsberg, that serves as a visual archive of human suffering under the Third Reich. It can be found at the Germansiches Nationalmuseum in Nürnberg, Germany.

Entering this part of the museum was eerie. The air smelled pungent and greasy, as if you can feel the suffering of those who have lived during those times. The worn-out and shabby gloves and shoes once belonged to those who were forced into labor. This is indeed such grim reminder that tells us to be watchful and vigilant for this to never happen again.

The artist collected these at the deserted Anhalter Bahnhof train station, located in "no-man's land" near the Berlin Wall. Barracks for forced laborers stood near the train station during the Third Reich.

I wonder who had worn these shoes? May God bless him/her.