
DATE: Saturday, May 3, 1997                 TAG: 9705020064

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY DIANE TENNANT, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   59 lines

A MEMORIAL TO VILLAGERS ``TOWER OF LIFE'' CREATOR TO SPEAK ABOUT EXHIBIT

THE WOMAN WHO created the Tower of Life photo exhibit for the national Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. will sign books and speak about her work during Sunday's Holocaust Commemoration.

The tower, considered the museum's most powerful display, was created by Yaffa Eliach, one of 29 survivors from a Polish town of 3,500 that was nearly obliterated during World War II. The exhibit is a three-story collection of photographs showing the people of the village of Ejszyszki.

Eliach, at age 7, saw her mother and baby brother shot to death in front of her, and her father exiled to Siberia. When she returned to the village as an adult, Eliach was stunned to find no memorial, no remembrance of the dead.

``With her grandparents having been the photographers of the village, she decided that she would go everywhere in the world that she had to to find photographs of people who had lived in that village,'' said Betsy Karotkin of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater.

Eliach traveled the world for 16 years, searching for family photographs. Her efforts culminated in the Tower of Life, a three-story room covered with photos.

``You feel a little bit confined, almost uncomfortable in it,'' Karotkin said. ``But from floor to the top are the most beautiful photographs of families - at the beach, skiing, at home, celebrating Sabbath, graduating, getting married.''

Eliach is now an author, historian and professor of Judaic Studies at Brooklyn College. She will also do a short presentation and sign books at Barnes and Noble on Virginia Beach Boulevard.

Eliach's slide show and talk is part of the annual Holocaust Commemoration sponsored by the federation. A memorial ceremony will follow her presentation at Beth El Synagogue.

``One of the saddest things of the Holocaust is the fact that we see human beings as starved prisoners, and that's how we think of them,'' Karotkin said. ``We don't realize they were people just like you and me who went to school and went on vacation and loved and lost people.'' ILLUSTRATION: HOLOCAUST MUSEUM

Yaffa Eliach amid the photos in the three-story ``Tower of Life''

room.

IF YOU GO

Yaffa Eliach, who created the Tower of Life photo exhibit for the

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, will make two local

appearances:

2 to 3 p.m. Sunday, book- signing and presentation at Barnes and

Noble, 4485 Virginia Beach Blvd.

7 p.m. Sunday, slide presentation and talk at Congregation Beth

El, 422 Shirley Ave., Norfolk.

The events are free and open to the public.

The United Jewish Federation is also sponsoring the White Rose