Public art exhibit in Chesterfield promotes peace with Holocaust survivor portraits and stories 1%
By Layla Halilbasic0%
4/22/2026, 5:54:18 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 8 faulty reasoning types, including Appeal to Authority, Attempt to Sell a Product or Service, and Framing Effect, with Appeal to Emotion as the most egregious example at 19.5% saturation with 149 hits. Analysis detected 346 faulty-reasoning hits from 765 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 7.2% and a BS Rank of 1% (21,678 of 21,887 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 99.00% of the article peer group.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, as masked visitors kept their distance while moving through his outdoor exhibition, German Italian photographer and UNESCO Artist for Peace Luigi Toscano watched a heated argument unfold over whether the Holocaust happened.
Then, one of the people captured in Toscano’s portraits stepped forward: a survivor.
“He (the survivor) said: ‘You say that is not true.
OK, I will show you something,’” Toscano recalled.
“He showed his number, and he said, you think that is not true, this tattoo, [given to me by] the SS member in Auschwitz when I was 9 years old.
My [entire] family was killed in Auschwitz.
And you say this is not true?’”
The exchange ended in tears.
For Toscano, moments like this capture the purpose of “Lest We Forget,” his traveling exhibition of large-scale Holocaust survivor portraits.
The exhibit is on display at the District of St.
Louis in Chesterfield through May 3.
Toscano’s outdoor project makes history hard to ignore.
The portraits — each more than seven feet tall and over 3½ feet wide — feature survivors alongside fragments of their stories.
About 60 portraits are on display, including some of survivors who now live in the St.
Louis area.
Each image is paired with a small panel providing biographical context, such as their name, camp dates and release dates, along with a short caption.
One reads simply “anonymous.”
Another notes the subject “does not want to speak about the terrible experiences anymore.”
Supported initially by institutions including the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Toscano’s exhibit was his response to rising antisemitism and political extremism in Germany in 2014.
That year, he traveled to photograph survivors living in the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Belarus, Ukraine, Israel and Russia, giving them the opportunity to share their personal story.
The project now includes more than 800 portraits, a book, an app and a documentary.
Since that time, it’s reached millions globally as a public-facing effort to confront hate, including this return visit to St.
Louis.
But the work has faced backlash.
In 2019, several of the portraits exhibited along Ringstrasse Road in Vienna, Austria, were slashed with knives and defaced with anti-Semitic graffiti, including swastikas and the message “1 Jesus = 6,000,000 Jews.”
“In the end, young people came to this exhibition and [repaired] these pictures, and they protect these pictures.
That was so beautiful,” Toscano said.
“The younger generation helps me to stand up and to be there.”
That response underscores Toscano’s focus on younger audiences.
He emphasizes the urgency of Holocaust education, particularly as awareness declines.
Toscano, does not have Jewish ancestry, has also brought the exhibition into schoolyards in Germany, where students engage with the portraits through art.
The goal, he said, is curiosity rather than instruction.
“If we forget the past, we are damned to repeat it,” he said.
“It is so beautiful to see how they (students) start to work with this project.”
Toscano is expanding that effort to the United States for the first time.
He also plans to visit two rural Missouri schools — Houston High School in Houston and Smith-Cotton High School in Sedalia — with the ultimate goal of expanding nationwide.
There, he’ll use his work as a tool to get American students to engage with the stories of Holocaust survivors.
The photographer aims to remove the barriers often associated with museums by placing large-scale portraits of Holocaust survivors in public spaces like parks, squares and building facades.
“Good places are where many people are,” he said.
“That is what is necessary.
I would like to bring my art to the people.”
Each photo reminds viewers of what’s past and what is possible.
Toscano sees the project as a way to build bridges between people and encourage discussion, even with those who hold opposing views.
“The picture has the power to say the truth,” he said.
To learn more about “Lest We Forget” and how it came to be, listen to “St.
Louis on the Air” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or click the play button below.
Related Event
What: “Lest We Forget” exhibition
When: Now through May 3
Where: The District of St.
Louis, 17057 N.
Outer 40 Road, Chesterfield, MO 63005
“St.
Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St.
Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region.
The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer.
Layla Halilbasic is our production assistant.
The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
Speakers
1speaker14%attributed speech657writer words
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69%flagged-word coverageLuigi Toscano
108 attributed words100% of attributed speech34% writer coverage
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