Yellow Star, Sabina Saad Family

Caption for Sabina Saad's painting "Alexander Family", which had been shown in her exhibit "Dialog with the Yellow Star" in Mazkeret Batya from 28-3-2009:

Size: 50X35 Acrylic and pencil on canvas.
4 Yellow Badges representing
the hiding of four members of Alexander Family in an attic during the Nazi regime in Italy. Behind the attic Sabina's story about her Alexander family in Italian.

In 1934, the Alexander family that included my grandfather, Paul Leopold, my grandmother Margareta, my uncle Hans, My mother Anni, fled from Leipzig, Germany. They fled to Milan in Italy and remained there until 1939 when my grandfather was arrested. After a month in the jail St. Vittore he was transferred to the concentration camp in Ferramonti in Calabria in south Italy. After three years he was transferred to Fanzolo in the area of Treviso. The other family members joined him in 1943, thinking that the war ended since the Italians surrendered to the Allies. However, the Germans invaded Italy and the family was compelled to find a hideaway. Firstly, they hid in the attic of Tessaro family, and later in the attic of their sister in law Olivia. After the Germans located their headquarters nearby, the small family (with the help of Reverend Don Giuseppe Casarin) found refuge in the Temple of the Madonna Del Caravaggio, where they stayed until the end of the war, and thus they were saved. I, Sabina Saad, the daughter of Anni Alexander, have four children: Kuki, Itai, Noa and Eliel and six grandsons. I live in Israel. My cousin Roberto, the son of Hans, lives in Switzerland and has two children: Jonah and Elianah.

Paul Leopold Alexander

1893-1967. 

Margareta Alexander

1896-1952

Sabina Saad wrote

Elsa Alexander was not Jewish. She was married To Sigmond Alexander who was my grandfather's brother Paul. Her daughter, Inge, born in 1917 perished in the Holocaust.

Walter Alexander was one of eight brothers of my grandfather Paul (they were nine brothers, all sons, he was one before last), he fought for the Germans in the First World War. He was injured by a horse's kick in the head, and a bomb exploded next to him. Following he was hospitalized in a mental hospital. According to my mother, he perished in the Holocaust

Else and Inge Alexander

Walter Alexander

Sabina Saad, Yellow Star

Photo is courtesy of Sabina Saad

Copyright: Sabina Saad 2008

Right now this works is taking part in the Yellow Holocaust Star Exhibit at Yigal Alon House, Safed, which started on 30-4-2008. Curator: Reli Wasser.

Size: 70cm x70cm

Technique: Acrylic on material

Sabina Saad is a Second generation of holocaust survivors.

She wrote:

The yellow star, a small piece of material that marked the Jews, took on a wide-ranging significance and sealed destinies. Thus I chose to draw an enlarged yellow star such that the canvas could not contain it. Had I the possibility, I would have drawn it the size of a stadium, but that too would not have been enough to encompass the immense horror that the yellow star symbolizes.

Bar Code Holocaust Yellow Badge

Photo is courtesy of Sabina Saad

Copyright: Sabina Saad 2008

Sabina Saad is working currently on a series of Yellow Holocaust Badge paintings. The one we see here is titled: The Cost, and it is designed as a Bar code to strengthen the message that the Jewish people paid a heavy price during WWII.

Contemplating this work of art one might realize that the sounds of the word Holocaust are HOLLOW & COST, which mean that the victims of the Nazis left an empty inner space (the word hollow) in our memory, and that the victims payed a horrible cost.

Sabina Saad, The Six Million

Photo of six Yellow Badges which stand for the zeroes in the number Six Million on the smoke that arises from the Nazi concentration camps chimneys is courtesy of illustrator and artist Sabina Saad.

Copyright: Sabina Saad 2007
Israel
Ramot Meir
Phone: 97289410231

Sabina Saad Self Portrait Miniature

Photo is courtesy of Sabina Saad who feels so identified with our national emblem that she made one from her signature creating the equation I = signature = Star of David.
It belongs to this sort of things that are so obvious that you ask yourself why no body thought about it before Sabina …
Copyrights: Sabina Saad 2007
Israel
Ramot Meir
Phone: 97289410231

Sabina Saad, 1x6000000 Black Yellow Badge

When we Magnify the Holocaust Yellow Badge 6000000 times the shape of the Star of David dissolves and all we see is either yellow or black (in this case yellow). This is one of many works in a series about the Yellow Badge symbol on which
Sabina Saad is working currently.

Acrylic on canvas, 50X70 cm

Sabina Saad, 1x6000000 Yellow Badge

When we Magnify the Holocaust Yellow Badge 6000000 times the shape of the Star of David dissolves and all we see is either yellow or black (in this case yellow). This is one of many works in a series about the Yellow Badge symbol on which
Sabina Saad is working currently.

The Butterfly That Cannot Fly

Artist Sabina Saad sent this painting to The Butterfly Project of the Holocaust Museum in Houston. The idea behind this project was to remember 1.5 million that perished during the Holocaust. Sabina added to her work a caption saying:

My butterfly is gray; it is not colorful like all the butterflies, because it is sad like the children that perished during the Holocaust. The only point of color is the yellow patch that instead of happiness adds sadness. Its life is short like all the butterflies’ and of the children that died in the holocaust. It does not fly and it looks like those butterflies that people collect and guard in frames.

It Wasn't A Shield

Copyright: Sabina Saad 2008

Sabina told me that this work started when she realized that in Hebrew the Holocaust yellow star is called Yellow Badge and not Yellow David’s Shield. She thought the reason for this special naming was that it didn’t protect the Jewish victims. Then she illustrated this insight by painting a torn dismantled Yellow Badge and showing the stitches.

Sabina Saad, Peace Doves

Photo of Peace Doves with olive branches in their beaks made in color pencil by illustrator and artist Sabina Saad.
Copyright: Sabina Saad 2007
Israel
Ramot Meir
Phone: 97289410231

The Stamp That Wasn’t Issued

Photo of Star of David on a Jerusalem stamp that wasn’t issued is courtesy of illustrator and artist Sabina Saad .
Sabina showed it to a committee in the postal authority - they refused it, but IMHO they should reconsider and publish it for next Jerusalem Day. Stamp collectors may find it interesting to keep a copy of this stamp.
Copyright: Sabina Saad 2007
Israel
Ramot Meir
Phone: 97289410231

Peace In Three Languages

Picture of the word peace in three languages: Hebrew Arabic and English on a Star of David is courtesy of illustrator and artist Sabina Saad. The idea behind this illustration is similar to the Star of David made from Sabina’s name.
Copyright: Sabina Saad 2007
Israel
Ramot Meir
Phone: 97289410231

Uri Zvi Greenberg

Picture of Star of David walls around Jerusalem is courtesy of illustrator and artist Sabina Saad who made it as an illustration for Uri Zvi Greenberg’s poem:

tonight they are shooting at your gates, Jerusalem.

Sabina told me that she was influenced by the word “shield “ which appears a few times in this poem. I showed her E.M. Lilien's ex-libris for philosopher Martin Buber which used the same idea a few decades before her; she was satisfied to hear about this connection to the first zionist painter.

Copyright Sabina Saad 2007
Ramot Meir, Israel
Phone: 97289410231

Isaskhar

Photo of Star of David in a stained glass window depicting the tribe of Isaskhar is courtesy of Ronen Kimel and Sabina Saad. The window is one in a series of 12 tribes of Israel and it is decorating a synagogue in Sharei Tikva, Israel.
Copyrights:Ronen Kimel and Sabina Saad 2007
Ronen Kimel lives in Moshav Nir Israel 113 and you can contact him via
972544807492
ronenkimel@bezeqint.net
Sabina Saad lives in Ramot Meir
Phone: 97289410231

Star of David Lampshade

This is the fifth Star of David lampshade I publish here on my blog and it is the most artistic and expensive of them all.

Photo is courtesy of Ronen Kimel and Sabina Saad

The lampshade is hanging in a synagogue in Ashdod, Israel.

Copyright: Ronen Kimel and Sabina Saad 2007

Ronen Kimel lives in Moshav Nir Israel 113 and you can contact him via

972544807492

ronenkimel@bezeqint.net

Sabina Saad lives in Ramot Meir

Phone: 97289410231

The Seven Species

Photo of The Seven Species on a stained glass lampshade in the form of the Star of David is courtesy of Ronen Kimel and Sabina Saad. The lampshade is hanging in a synagogue in Ashdod, Israel.
Copyrights: Ronen Kimel and Sabina Saad 2007
Ronen Kimel lives in Moshav Nir Israel 113 and you can contact him via
972544807492
ronenkimel@bezeqint.net
Sabina Saad lives in Ramot Meir
Phone: 97289410231

Jerusalem Day

Photo of Star of David on a poster for Jerusalem Day is courtesy of illustrator and artist Sabina Saad. The poster was made in 1994 for the Israeli Information Ministry and for the Education Ministry.
Sabina works in her studio at Ramot Meir, Israel, and you can call her on the phone 97289410231
Copyrights: Sabina Saad 2007

Big Smoke

Artist Sabina Saad spent many years in Italy before she came to Israel.  In Italian the comics “balloons” are called FUMETTO, which means small smoke, but Jews in the holocaust went to Heaven in a Big Smoke. There are no words in these “balloons” since Jewish victims’ voices were not heard at that time, and since many Jewish survivors stopped believing in God.

Dialog with a Yellow Badge Series

Ink and color pencil on paper

14.3X14.3 cm.

Copyright: Sabina Saad 2008

Mezuzah From India

Two Stars of David on a Mezuzah From India, more than 100 years old, bought by artist Sabina Saad in an antique store in Jaffa, Israel.
Copyright: Sabina Saad 2008

Playing Around

A circle of black Stars of David on white background is the outcome of artist Sabina Saad's playing around with her camera.
Copyright: Sabina Saad 2008
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