Theodor W. Adorno is quoted as asking how it is possible to compose music after Auschwitz. Antanas Sutkus, a master of art photography (born in the Kluoniskiai village not far from Kaunas in 1939), learned about the mass killing of Jews by Nazis during World War II from his grandparents. Being a Lithuanian himself, he intuitively felt bitterly opposed to the humiliation of man and mass destruction of human life in his homeland. He had feelings of shame and guilt for what had been going on behind the Vilijampole ghetto gates and in the 9th fort – then known as „Enterprise 1.005–B” between 1941 and 1944.
200.000 men, women, children and old folk were shot dead and thrown into pits prepared for them at forest edges, quarries and death camps. As a periprhrasis of T.W. Adorno words comes the question from the Lithuanian photo artist: „How is it posible to live after the 9th fort of Kaunas and the Paneriai forests?”
It was in 1988 that Antanas Sutkus began to photograph the Kaunas Jews who had miraculously escaped death in concentration camps. That was the time when commemoration events were held. The artist resumed this work in 1994, during the events to mark the 50th anniversary of the liquidation of the Kaunas ghetto. Gradually personal relationships were struck up. The camera, like a scalpel, went deeper and deeper through the tissues of memory and time. The survivors portraites marked by subtle psychological nuances. The generalised details of everyday reality, moments captured in seemingly uneventful daily life are tinged with that mysterious light of the soul opening up the metaphysical depths of the meaning of suffering.
The photo exhibition Pro memoria by Antanas Sutkus dedicated to the memory of the Kaunas ghetto produces a tremendous impact showing the power of presentation of dramatic reality and a kind heart’s attempts at understanding, penitence, purification and rebirth. (Alfonsas Bukontas)