Bristol’s Button Project Honors Young Lives Lost to the Holocaust

One of the most painful statistics of the Holocaust is the staggering number of children who were killed in the genocide. The atrocities committed by the Nazi regime during World War II claimed the lives of 1.5 million children, and the impact of that much loss can be hard to grasp.

To honor these young lives, Bristol’s Holocaust and Genocide Center launched a community-wide button collection project in 2017 with the goal of amassing 1.5 million buttons – each small token symbolizing one child lost to the Holocaust. With support from schools, businesses and international contributors, Bristol’s button count surpassed its goal in 2020.

Throughout the project, Bristol sought to remember these children and give voice to their stories through button-themed art. As buttons were being collected, Bristol art students designed button mosaic portraits of Holocaust victim Anne Frank and survivor Stephen Ross, now housed at Bristol's Grimshaw- Gudewicz Gallery.

Following the COVID hiatus, Bristol convened a Button Project Committee to oversee a public art installation that would serve as a permanent display for the button collection. After issuing a “Call for Proposals for a Public Work of Art,” the Committee selected Boston artist Zach Horn to create the public artwork. In March 2025, the Committee announced the finalist’s selection at the opening of an exhibit in the college’s Grimshaw-Gudewicz Art Gallery entitled “Bearing Witness: A Sea of Buttons in Memory of the Holocaust’s Youngest Victims.” The temporary art display featured all 1.5 million buttons stretched out across the gallery floor, a striking visual of so many tiny lives lost.

 

Horn’s installation will feature twelve double-sided, laminated glass panels supported by stainless steel frames. The buttons will fill the gaps between each set of clear panels, creating dotted vertical screens that will edge a courtyard on Bristol’s Fall River Campus. The peaceful space will allow visitors to see every button up close and invite quiet reflection upon the enormity of human loss that the collection represents.

– Zach Horn

Installation of the art panels is slated for Summer 2026. For more information about the project, please visit BristolCC.edu/ArtGallery/TheButtonProject.