Holodomor Digital Collections

A group of homeless children on a rock pile in Kharkiv

Description
Creator
Wienerberger, Alexander, 1891-1955, Photographer
Media Type
Image
Text
Item Types
Photographs
Photograph albums
Description
Several children sit on a pile of rocks. The rock pile looks like construction debris against a tall wooden fence, and in the foreground a set of train tracks is visible. One of the photo captions reads that these homeless children (or bezprizornye, as known in Russian) are delousing themselves, which actually is not apparent on close inspection, though certainly possible. The boy on the right appears to be lost in thought; another, dozing off. They are both barefoot, though warmly dressed. A young girl sits near the fence while another bundled up child, its back to the photographer, rests its head on the young girl’s lap.

One could speculate that this is a resting spot for these children, or that these children are waiting for the next train to see if someone will throw them some scraps of food, or they are waiting for a freight train that they might possibly jump to get to another location.

This shot may be in the vicinity of the photograph seen in PD110, http://vitacollections.ca/HREC-holodomorphotodirectory/3636296/data - where a disabled man is making his way across train tracks to a similar pile of stone rubble near a wooden fence. Perhaps this was an area where some of the homeless congregated in Kharkiv.

For further information on: Homeless children and children as victims, see "Context Note" under Related Features at right.
Notes
Photo source: Wienerberger, Alexander. Die Hungertragödie in Südrussland 1933; also known as the Innitzer Album, 1934. p.10.

This is one of 25 photographs depicting life and death in and around Kharkiv during the Holodomor that the photographer put together in a small album with a handwritten title: Die Hungertragödie in Südrussland 1933 [The Tragedy of Famine in South Russia 1933.] He presented the album to the Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodor Innitzer of Vienna in 1934 as an expression of appreciation for the Cardinal’s efforts in trying to organize an international campaign to assist the victims of starvation in 1933. The album is housed in the collections of the Diözesanarchiv, Vienna, Austria.

For essays and a listing of originals and versions published through 1939 with their captions, see menus at right.
Inscriptions
Handwritten caption in album: “Hunger!” [Starvation!]
Date of Original
spring-summer 1933
Image Dimensions
Image Width: 10.8cm
Image Height: 7.9cm
Subject(s)
Local identifier
PD11
Collection
Alexander Wienerberger: Innitzer album
Language of Item
German
Geographic Coverage
  • Kharkiv, Ukraine
    Latitude: 49.98081 Longitude: 36.25272
Copyright Statement
Protected by copyright: Uses other than research or private study require the permission of the rightsholder(s). Responsibility for obtaining permissions and for any use rests exclusively with the user.
Copyright Holder
Samara Pearce https://www.samarapearce.com/
Recommended Citation
Wienerberger, Alexander. 1933. “Hunger!” in: Die Hungertragödie in Südrussland 1933. Vienna: Diözesanarchiv der Erzdiözese, [1934]. p.10. Retrieved from: http://vitacollections.ca/HREC-holodomorphotodirectory/3636374/data
Location of Original
Diözesanarchiv - Bibliothek, Vienna, Austria. Please contact this archive for official reproductions.
Terms of Use
Rightsholder requests that the name of the photographer, Alexander Wienerberger, accompany each authentic reproduction of his work.
Reproduction Notes
Reproduced with the permission of rightsholder Samara Pearce and the Diözesanarchiv - Bibliothek, Vienna, Austria.
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