From Adler to Zylber.

Work.

Biograph.

Description.

FROM ADLER TO ZYLBER (literally, "from eagle to silver"), an alphabetic
cosmology of the dead, is a series of conceptual Holocaust memorial
installations begun in 1991 using original pictograms as visual
interpretations of German-Jewish names from an Auschwitz transport list.

The original document inspiring this project is the 1000-name transport
list of Convoy #42 (6 November 1942; France to Auschwitz), which I
found in The Memorial to the Deportation of the Jews from
France by Serge Klarsfeld. Among the 1000 Jews from all over Europe on
this particular train was my grandfather. FROM ADLER TO ZYLBER is a
symbolic continuation of Convoy #42's journey.

From this transport list I selected 100 German-Jewish names, all with
meanings derived from nature. Each name is represented by a pictogram,
pairing the name, written in Gothic Script, with a number and a different
associative image. The images were taken from pre-War sources of European
popular culture -- lexicons, school- and text-books, fairy-tales, children's
books and other printed ephemera. They were collaged together and
sometimes slightly altered by drawing. This mixture of elements is
contained by a black border (reminiscent of a death notice) and a thin
outer edge of white. Each pictogram, photocopied onto white paper,
measures 36 by 36 inches square.

The title FROM ADLER TO ZYLBER refers not only to the first and last names
chosen from the transport list of Convoy #42 but also describes the system
with which the pictograms are arranged within a given space. They mimic
the order of nature -- Adler (eagle) is hung high above on the wall, Zylber (silver)
nearest the ground, and so on.

FROM ADLER TO ZYLBER is an ongoing project having many variants. The
open-ended FROM ADLER TO ZYLBER cycle is a clue-filled rebus seeking to
tell a story without words illustrating the tragic fate of the European
Jews. I consider the pictograms as gravestones for people who had no
funerals.

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FROM ADLER TO ZYLBER: A NOTE ON THE NAMES

At 8:55 on the morning of 6 November 1942, Convoy #42 left Drancy, France
for the concentration camp Auschwitz. One thousand Jews were on board;
221 of them children. My father's father, a Viennese Jew, was among the
passengers. The journey took three days. Upon arrival 227 people were
selected for work. The rest were gassed immediately, my grandfather
included. At the war's end, four people from Convoy #42 were known to
have survived.

--Melissa Gould.

Below is the complete list of the 100 works in FROM ADLER TO ZYLBER.
Capitalized words are those illustrated herein and are linked to the corresponding
page for reference.

(NAME / English translation)

1. Adler eagle 2. Bach brook 3. Baum tree 4. Bernstein amber 5. Blumen flowers 6. Blumenthal valley of flowers 7. Blumztein bloom stone 8. BREHOLZ firewood 9. Breitenfeld wide field 10. Buchwald beech forest 11. Buxbaum box tree 12. Diamant diamond 13. Eigewald oak forest 14. Eisen iron 15. Eisenberg iron mountain 16. Engel angel 17. Faingold fine gold 18. Fernbach distant brook 19. Feuer fire 20. FISCH fish 21. Fischbach fish brook 22. Fischbein whale bone 23. Friedberg peace mountain 24. Frost frost 25. Fuchs fox 26. Gartenberg garden mountain 27. Geisholz honeysuckle 28. Gelbtrunck yellow drink 29. Gerstztenkorn barleycorn 30. Gold gold 31. Goldadler gold eagle 32. Goldberg gold mountain 33. Goldblatt gold leaf 34. Goldenberg golden mountain 35. Goldstein gold stone 36. Groen green 37. Grunfeld green field 38. Haas hare 39. Hazenberg hare mountain 40. Himelblau sky-blue 41. Hirsch stag 42. Hirschfeld stag field 43. Honig honey 44. Katz cat 45. Kern kernel 46. Kirschbaum cherry tree 47. Kleinberg small mountain 48. Kupermine copper mine 49. Lauberstajn arbour stone 50. Lewenkoff lion head 51. LICHTENBAUM thinning tree 52. Maltz malt 53. Mandel almond 54. Mandelbaum almond tree 55. Mandelstam almond tree stem 56. Milstein mill stone 57. Mond moon 58. Morgenstern morning star 59. Rehfeld deer field 60. Reis rice 61. Rosenberg rose mountain 62. Rosenschein rose's glow 63. Rosenzweig rose twig 64. Rotszteyn red stone 65. Rozenblum rose bloom 66. Rozental valley of roses 67. Schatzberger man from treasure mountain 68. Schonbach beautiful brook 69. Schwalb swallow 70. SCHWARTZ black 71. Silberberg silver mountain 72. Silberstein silver stone 73. SILBERWASSER silver water 74. Spiegel mirror 75. Spritzer sprinkler 76. STEIGERWALD climber's forest 77. Stein stone 78. Steinberg stone mountain 79. Steinhaus stone house 80. Sternberg star mountain 81. STERNSCHUSS shooting star 82. Strausberg bouquet mountain 83. STRAUSZ ostrich 84. Sucher sugar 85. Szainholz beautiful wood 86. Tauber dove 87. Tenenbaum fir tree 88. Vajnapel vine apple 89. Vogel bird 90. Wald forest 91. Waldkirch forest church 92. Weinblum vine bloom 93. Weinfeld vine field 94. Weinstein tartar; cry / stone 95. WEISS white 96. Winter winter 97. Wolf wolf 98. Zweigenbaum twig tree 99. Zwetschkenbaum plumtree 100. Zylber silver