How It All Started
The journey of discovery began from an innocent question I asked my father:
As a child, did you ever ask your parents questions about their past? Do you know anything about their family history?
He answered me a bit frustrated:
At the time, it was not common to ask our parents questions about their past. My parents did not make any effort to tell us about their lives growing up in Europe. What I knew were basic facts like where they came from and that they moved to Palestine in the 1930s. Looking back, I regret that I did not ask them when I could.
As I look at family albums, many questions cross my mind, making me wonder about my family’s story. Questions like who were my grandparents and where did they grow up? What was it like to grow up In Europe? How did they feel having to leave their home because of their religion? What was it like to build a new home in a completely new country? Who are the unknown people in the photos?
Many of my parents’ generation did not ask their parents questions about their past and the parents did not make an effort to sit with their kids and talk about it. This left many gaps of untold family stories.
For the past few years, with the help of my father, we decided to try and collect as much information as we could about the Kobrin family. Unfortunately the stories we were able to collect were limited. As we tried to find out more information from other members of our family, we received the same answers. Left with many unanswered questions and not many people left to ask, we both felt frustrated.
Even though there are quite a few gaps in our family history, we decided to embark on this unknown journey, and see what we discover. The frustration of not having a lot to work with, and the surprises found along the way are part of this visual storytelling journey.
We were left with personal objects, owned by my grandfather, left in a box. It is time to open the box and try to fit the pieces of the puzzle together from the stories hidden inside.
The search begins…
