Onderduiker
 

Onderduiker: Hiding in Plain Sight at Amsterdam’s ARTIS Zoo during WWII, tells the harrowing story of the Jews, resistance fighters, and young men escaping forced labor, who owed their lives to the staff at Amsterdam’s ARTIS Zoo. Using infrared photography and lyrical poetry, I explore 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 in the Jewish neighborhood of Amsterdam known as the Jodenbuurt, ARTIS Zoo served as a hiding place for two to three hundred men, women, and children, all of whom survived. The zoo stayed open throughout the war, and Onderduikers spent months, even years, in animal enclosures. 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.

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