Art
-
Art can be a powerful medium when expressing emotions or illustrating life as experienced. Artist Bedřich Fritta who was born Fritz Taussig expressed his experiences of the Holocaust via art. Fritta was captured and deported on 4 December 1941 to the Theresienstadt ghetto. His wife and son followed in 1942. Fritta and other illustrators in…
-
On March 24, 1941, the first train transport of Dutch artworks took place to the newly established art bunker in the Sint-Pietersberg. The Dutch stored approximately 800 art treasures in the Limburg art bunker, including works by Vermeer, Paulus Potter, and Rembrandt’s “The Night Watch.” The Dutch kept the artworks during the war in the…
-
The painting titled “Boats on Rough Seas Near a Rocky Coast” was created in the mid-17th century and seized in June 1944 from Minna Bargeboer-Kirchheimer, who was a victim of Nazi persecution. Minna was born on October 7, 1867, in Nieheim, Germany. In 1893, Minna married Abraham Bargeboer, a Dutch Jewish cattle dealer from Winschoten,…
-
Among the most dishonorable acts of art theft in history, the looting orchestrated by the Third Reich stands as the most colossal. By the end of World War II, Nazi forces had seized over 20% of Europe’s art. This cultural plunder was driven in part by the regime’s systematic assault on modernism and Adolf Hitler’s…
-
Adolf Hitler is infamous for his evil deeds and politics , but a lesser-known chapter of his life is his early pursuit of a career in art. Before he became the architect of one of history’s darkest periods, Hitler aspired to be a professional painter. His time as an artist, though ultimately unsuccessful, played a…
-
David Olère was a Polish-French artist known primarily for his powerful and haunting artworks depicting the Holocaust. Born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1902, Olère survived internment in several concentration camps during World War II, including Auschwitz and Buchenwald. After the war, Olère settled in France and began creating art that bore witness to the atrocities…
-
The one thing that always puzzled me is that the Nazis never stole one of the most famous paintings, if not the most famous Rembrandt—”Nacht Wacht” (Night Watch). Recently, I found out the reason. In August 1939, it became clear that war was inevitable. The Dutch government took steps for the safety of the Dutch…
-
I believe that the most powerful weapon the Nazis had during World War II was its propaganda machine. Other countries used propaganda, but not as effectively as the Nazis. Perhaps critical thinking had not been eradicated or banned elsewhere. The Nazis often used art to spread their message. Some of their posters remind me of…
-
This post will contain little text. Instead, it has drawings by those who lived through the Holocaust. Above is “Arrival into the Auschwitz Camp.” Just behind the backs of the prisoners and to their left is the guard tower at the main entrance to the camp. (Illustration by Władysław Siwek) Next we see the entrance…
History of Sorts 