SB46

The thing that stood out the most for me at the Holocaust Centre was the fact that they spoke about Apartheid and how during Apartheid and the Holocaust, they had similar laws. This inspired me to build a bench showing the separation between the two groups of people during those horrendous times. I build two benches back to back, one looking neat and painted nicely while the other looks ugly and worn out. The nice bench is for the whites and the Germans because they were seen as the ‘superior’ group of people. I put them on the bench to show how they were on the same ‘level’ when it came to people in power. The ugly bench is for the blacks and the Jews as they were seen as the ‘inferior’ group of people and were treated very similarly. If you look at the benches from the side view, you’ll see either the blacks and the whites, which is the Apartheid side, or you’ll see the Jews and Germans, which is the Holocaust side. When you look at the benches from the side view, you see the comparison between the nice and the ugly bench. It highlights the fact that both the Holocaust and Apartheid had segregation laws and believed that there was a superior and inferior group of people and that they needed to be separated and treated differently.

I decided to make segregation the theme of my project to emphasize how much these ‘simple’ segregation laws have impacted people’s lives today, especially in South Africa. During Apartheid, people of colour were forced into poverty-stricken areas and even now after the segregation laws have been lifted, these people still live in these areas and the ‘white’ areas are still filled with predominantly white people. So even though there no segregation laws anymore, these laws from Apartheid have still impacted people’s lives today.

The thing that stood out the most for me at the Holocaust Centre was the fact that they spoke about Apartheid and how during Apartheid and the Holocaust, they had similar laws. This inspired me to build a bench showing the separation between the two groups of people during those horrendous times. I build two benches back to back, one looking neat and painted nicely while the other looks ugly and worn out. The nice bench is for the whites and the Germans because they were seen as the ‘superior’ group of people. I put them on the bench to show how they were on the same ‘level’ when it came to people in power. The ugly bench is for the blacks and the Jews as they were seen as the ‘inferior’ group of people and were treated very similarly. If you look at the benches from the side view, you’ll see either the blacks and the whites, which is the Apartheid side, or you’ll see the Jews and Germans, which is the Holocaust side. When you look at the benches from the side view, you see the comparison between the nice and the ugly bench. It highlights the fact that both the Holocaust and Apartheid had segregation laws and believed that there was a superior and inferior group of people and that they needed to be separated and treated differently.

I decided to make segregation the theme of my project to emphasize how much these ‘simple’ segregation laws have impacted people’s lives today, especially in South Africa. During Apartheid, people of colour were forced into poverty-stricken areas and even now after the segregation laws have been lifted, these people still live in these areas and the ‘white’ areas are still filled with predominantly white people. So even though there no segregation laws anymore, these laws from Apartheid have still impacted people’s lives today.