Reconciling Lives

His professional life has dealt with the painful history of the Nazi era in many ways. He is best known for his interpretive photographic images of Holocaust sites and memorials as he found them years after the end of WWII. Those images have been exhibited in many museums, universities and galleries throughout the world including Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, the United States Congress in Washington DC, the Jewish Museum in Prague, Czech Republic, and the Imperial War Museum in London.
When he first learned about Action Reconciliation Service for Peace (ARSP) over twenty years ago he found a healing force that moved him deeply. The youth of Germany, reconciling their lives with those of the victims of Nazi Germany, was a positive response to a terrible chapter in world history. Hearing the powerful stories from German volunteers about their experiences of reconciliation with survivors of that era, he recognized that those are stories that must be told. The results of over 400 interviews with young German men and women as well as the survivors that they befriended during a year of volunteer service are contained within these pages.
Mr. Gilens' acclaimed previous book, Discovery and Despair: the Dimensions of Dora, is a photographic and written history of the Nazi slave labor camp where the V-1 and V-2 rockets were manufactured in 1944/45.
Alvin Gilens resides with his wife in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania and is blessed with wonderful children and remarkable grandchildren.