I feel a little shell shocked by it really. It’s disturbing but I’d like to just believe that the artist meant for it to be exactly what he said… a commentary on the stance of Swiss neutrality. My father’s family was Swiss and came to America around the time of WWI so it’s given me pause for thought.

The use of the gold teeth of our victims, ripped from their mouths by Nazi butchers to create “art,” is absolutely abhorrent. These teeth belong to survivors and their families, many of whom are suffering and in financial need. The teeth should have been turned over to the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem to allow the staff there (who represent our victims) to decide how best to honor the memory of those murdered men and women. As a Jew and as a human being I am apalled by this.

That was a wonderful post. Thank you for sharing that article which talk about the different issues in our society. I really love to read post which is about gold and stock market. It keep me updated with the current situation in the stock market and the value of gold in the market today which is a good investment. I look forward to your next post and Im sure it is as interesting post again.

I have to agree with Rabbi Aiello on this one. While I understand that the artist is making a social statement about Switzerland’s questionable neutrality during the war, using actual body parts, even gold teeth, is objectionable to the extreme. I hope Yad Vashem registers a complaint with the authorities on this matter.

I think this is an absolutely brilliant work that reminds the viewers yet again of the Holocaust. It greatly honors the dead by not letting us forget.

LIke everyhting else related to the holocaust, I find this sculpture repugnant.
But more than that, who is the deranged “private collector” of this gold?? This is no private matter, nothing less than full disclosure of the person’s name, background and manner of “owning” this horrible collection should satisfy all citizens of the world.
I hope that Yad VaShem goes for the jugular on this one!

What is also repugnant is that Rabbi Hirschfield filed this under Pop Culture. That seems to suggest the Rabbi doesn’t take this too seriously, as does the mealy-mouthed “what do you think” non-judgment.
Although maybe this is a good time for the Rabbi to tell us what thinks about theodicy, which he also not artfully dodged in his Haiti post.

This made me so sad. All I can think of is those people getting their teeth ripped out. horrific. How could this artist stand to handle the gold?
I’m not Jewish. I can’t imagine how I would feel if I were Jewish, or had a relative who was a survivor. Probably worse than I do now.

Before those fillings were melted, it would have been better to at least see if there was any DNA that could have been extracted first. I realize that many families perished to the last member, but for any relatives that escaped closure would have been nice, even from such a macabre source.

Well, the teeth couldn’t be DNA tested because they didn’t have files of people’s DNA back then, so even if they found DNA, they could not find out whose DNA it was.

how much did this house cost to make and how much do you think you could sell it for. also how did you obtain the gold teeth