Actor Dan Radcliffe (Harry Potter) and UK Harry Potter audio book narrator Stephen Fry have donated their glasses to a project being held as part of Holocaust Memorial Day in the UK. This is North Scotland reports that they donated their eye wear for an exhibit that reflects this striking photo of discarded glasses taken from the victims of the concentration camps in World War II. Upon making his donation Dan wrote “Please find enclosed my first pair of glasses which I wore at school at six. I wish you every success with the exhibition.”
These glasses are part of the Respectacles Project and will be on display in Liverpool, England January 21 to 26, with the glasses later being donated to the Vision Aid Overseas charity. Also in Liverpool, England there will be a special Holocaust memorial event held at the Philharmonic January 27, which will be lead by actor Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy).
As tje friend, of several people who lost family, I applaud anyone who can help with this cause. I am especially proud of the Potter Family for their contributions to this and many other charity/awareness organizations. Bravo, to all! I, too, wish them a wonderful exibition.
Posted by Confederate Lady on January 03, 2008, 03:35 PM
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What a wonderful gesture on the part of Dan, Stephen, and all who contributed. We must never, ever forget the Holocaust; education and exhibits like this will help ensure that.
What an amazing opportunity to see and learn from this historic event, luckily I’m at university in Liverpool, I’d like to see the talk in the Philharmonic
I have worn glasses for almost a year and a half. There are days when I don’t wear them, and it is horrible. I don’t think someone who has never worn glasses can understand that when they are suddenly taken away, even though you can still “see,” you feel blinded. It’s horrible. Bravo to those who donated their glasses to this project!
There’s another article stating that the celeb’s glasses will be auctioned off while the rest will be donated for use. That was funny, thinking how some little kid would be wearing “harry potter’s” glasses without even knowing it!
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It is a wonderful gesture by Daniel and Stephen.
We know Dan is always very interested in history, maybe even his family suffered the Holocaust.
I agree with you all, the pic is heartbreaking…
I hope we can see a picture of the piece of artwork when they finish it.
“I don’t think someone who has never worn glasses can understand that when they are suddenly taken away, even though you can still “see,” you feel blinded.”
I know exactly what you mean Jennifer. I’ve had my glasses since I was 9. Without them I feel blind and dizzy as well.
It’s wonderful that Dan and everyone else donated their old glasses and if I could donate one of my old pairs to them I would.
The event isn’t to commemorate people being taken their glasses, guys. Owners of the glasses you can see in that photo have all died of hunger, exhaustion, cold, inhuman experiments or in gas chambers, and the amount of the meticulously collected glasses is to show the scale of the planned murder. There are other rooms in the same concentration camp, filled with suitcases, with names and birthdates of their owners, with shoes, teethbrushes, and a room filled with women’s hair, ponytails and braids of little girls, whitened over the years. Collecting glasses for the memorial is to show that these people were the same as us, and not the pages in a history book.
That is wonderful. The Holocaust was, and is, the greatest human tragedy to ever occur. To do what they (Radcliffe and Fry) did is, for lack of better word, good. While nothing anyone can do will give you the feeling of what it was actually like, I have a notion, as does anyone who has visited a Holocaust museum. The fact the UK has a memorial day for it is both heartening and sad. The sad is that they have the day at all. If it hadn’t have happened, they wouldn’t need one. As far as I know, the US doesn’t have one which quite frankly disgusts me. Memorials aren’t enough. We celebrate and mourn Martin Luther King Jr, who died for his beliefs, but not for the 6,000,000 plus Jews and the other groups who were killed? That’s the most depressing thing I can think of at the time. I can only hope nothing that terrible occurs ever again.
That photo is heartbreaking. It’s nice of Dan and Stephen to contribute to such a wonderful exhibit.