ONDERDUIKER: Hiding in Plain Sight at Amsterdam’s ARTIS Zoo during WWII

Artists Talk: April 26, 3:30–4:30 PM

Baltimore photographer Phyllis Arbesman Berger’s powerful new exhibition, Onderduiker: Hiding in Plain Sight at Amsterdam’s ARTIS Zoo during WWII. This is the harrowing story of the Jews, resistance fighters, and young men escaping forced labor, who owed their lives to the staff at the ARTIS Amsterdam Royal Zoo during WWII. Using infrared photography and lyrical poetry, Berger explores the psychological landscapes of the individuals who lived in constant fear, not knowing from day to day whether their hiding places might be revealed. Nazi soldiers loved the zoo and visited daily, not realizing that a wall away people were in hiding. Images and text chronicle the struggles of ordinary people caught in extraordinary circumstances as they spend time with their memories, take flight with imagination, and experience longing, grief and at times terror.

Located near the Jewish neighborhood of the Jodenbuurt, ARTIS served as a hiding place for two to three hundred men, women and children, all of whom survived during their time in hiding. The zoo stayed open throughout the war, and Onderduikers spent months, even years hidden behind the scenes of animal enclosures in kitchens, attics and stables. All this took place within the beautiful grounds of the zoo. This setting, with its peaceful paths, sculpture gardens, and inventive architecture that served as hiding places, provides the stage for telling the Onderduiker’s stories.

The photographs and poetry in this exhibition are informed by conversations with the ARTIS Zoo historian, the former director of the Zoo (an Onderduiker himself), and groundskeepers during visits over the past seven years.

This exhibition is a collaboration between the artist and students at Goucher College, whose research and writing provide a foundation for understanding the historical context of this work.