The Multiply by Six Million Project

About the Project

John Steiner
Concentration Camp Survivor

Photographer Evvy Eisen wanted to portray the Holocaust on a human level to communicate its personal as well as historical significance. She took portraits of over 200 Holocaust Survivors in the United States and Europe, and collected their personal testimonies.

She created the Multiply by Six Million Project to unify the three major facets of her work - Survivor Research Archive, Exhibit and Short Film - and make them accessible for viewing and research. Seeing Survivor's portraits and reading their moving testimonies presents them as individuals with unique thoughts and experiences instead of as nameless members of a massive group.

Eisen's work has been exhibited in the US and Europe. It is in the permanent collections of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Mémorial de la Shoah in Paris. The Multiply by Six Million exhibit was presented with Michael Kenna's Impossible to Forget: The Nazi Camps Fifty Years After.

Photographer's statement

I met with each survivor several times to get to know them and learn about their life before, during and after the war. I photographed them in their home or a place they chose encouraging them to include objects of personal significance in their portrait. Each person looked into the lens of my camera so that their eyes communicate directly with the photo’s viewer. I gave each Survivor a copy of their portrait.

I used black and white film, a medium format camera and natural light. I did all darkroom work, creating individual, fine art, silver gelatin prints. The photographs were not digitally manipulated in any way.

I did not accept compensation for my work or reimbursement for any of my expenses. I received limited grant support to pay those worked on preparation of exhibits and creation of the film.

Survivor Research Archive

The Survivor Research Archive is the full collection of portraits taken by Evvy Eisen paired with texts written by survivors specifically for this project, organized by categories of each person's wartime experiences.

Because many survivors were subjected to multiple traumas it is only by reading their full narratives that the impact of the loss they and their families experienced can be understood.

Exhibit

The Multiply by Six Million exhibit includes 38 portraits Evvy took of survivors paired with condensed versions of the texts each wrote for this project. It is available to view on this site and as an in-person traveling exhibit. Both are sponsored by Exhibit Envoy.

Film

This short film combines Evvy's photographs and the voices of survivors recounting moving passages from their personal stories. It was premiered on the Sundance TV channel.

In the Words of Survivors

"When I spoke of the horrors that had taken place no one believed me. So, I found refuge in silence, I never mentioned it. But every night in my dreams, I went back to Auschwitz."

Gabriel Benichou

"We had to be counted in the courtyard every morning no matter how we felt, no matter what the weather, rain or cold or snow or wind. Sometimes the count lasted for hours until they got it right. But it could never be right because some of us had already died."

Leah Laskowski