Beyond The Barbed Wire

As a child, Ben Altman wanted to be a painter. He was captured by the Nazis and placed in five different camps around Poland. Ben survived the camps because his skill as a tailor was useful to the Nazis. After his camp was freed by the Russians, Ben went to live in San Francisco and continued to make his living as a tailor. It was after his retirement that a lifetime of memories poured out of him, and onto his canvases. The images of his dreams and emotions are a powerful testament to a brutal period in his life. But they are also an inspiration and a reminder that our thoughts create who we are.