CAMERA OBSCURA

THE KASSELS

On July 3, 1921, a group of approximately 100 men, women and children gathered together to have their photograph taken on the steps of the 19th-century Kursaal building in the spa town of Bad Brückenau in northwestern Bavaria. Who they were is a mystery. Even more puzzling is the connection between the photograph and the Kassels, a Lithuanian Jewish family from Kaunas who were murdered during the German occupation of the city between 1941 and 1944, and in whose former attic the photograph was discovered in 2016. The Bad Brückenau portrait is one of 43 clearly intimate and no doubt once treasured family photographs from Lithuania, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Mozambique, Switzerland, South Africa and the United States that the Camera Obscura project are trying to 'reunite' with surviving members of the Kassel family who must be out there somewhere. For more information about the story and how to get involved, call tel. +37063016686, or email thedatabrigade@gmail.com. Complete with some possibly helpful captions and descriptions, all 43 photographs can be seen here.