David Olere Their Last Steps Essay

535 Words2 Pages

Their Last Steps by David Olere combines dark, morbid imagery with a hellish atmosphere in order emphasis the need for unity for the Jewish people in the camps. The most striking image is of three Muselmann, all sickly, deprived, and malnourished, standing hand in hand as the horrors of the concentration camps unfolds around them. The main aspect that stands out from the rest of the chaos of the scene is the apparent unity of the Muselmann in the foreground: Even in the face of death itself, they choose to stand united, supporting one another to their ends, while their divided colleagues are put to death by the SS. By doing this, David Olere creates the notion that the Jewish victims of the Holocaust must stand together, using their combined …show more content…

Olere’s depiction of inmate-officer relationship dynamics provides a common enemy for all the inmates to focus upon: Instead of tearing each other apart for a piece of bread, they should instead stand united against this evil for their collective survival. Beyond enhancing the mood of the painting, the horrific, dark atmosphere of the painting also reveals the relationship between the Jewish people and the world at large: A mixture of ignorance and confusion, with the rest of the warring world unable to look into the suffering of the Jews (and vice versa). Wiesel’s comparison of his ordeal to the darkness of night also suggests this ignorance: All time itself would seem to slow in the face of isolation, the “hermetically sealed cattle car” becoming the world that he (and the rest of the inmates of the concentration camp) will know. Overall, Their Last Steps by David Olere encourages a sense of unity within the Jewish people, highlighting the cruelty of their true enemy, the guards, and creates a very real separation between the reality of the camps and the rest of the

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