Star of David

Monday, May 14, 2007

Felix Nussbaum

Artist Felix Nussbaum was born in Osnabrueck, Germany, and moved to Belgium in 1935. In 1940, he was arrested by the Nazis, but escaped, and lived in hiding in Brussels until he was caught again in 1944 and sent to Auschwitz. Felix Nussbaum's best-known painting "Self-Portrait with Jewish Identity Card." shows a frightened Jew with a yellow badge near cement walls under dark sky with black birds and a tree without leaves. This Jew holds an ID card with erased birthplace, nationality marked "None," and "JUIF-JOOD" printed in red.

But The Heavens Remained Closed

Photo of a yellow Star of David with praying Jews is courtesy of artist and Dr Martin Kieselstein who published it in his book We Have No other Land under the title Jews sent their prayers to the heavens, but the heavens remained closed.

Yellow Badge, Testimony of a Jewish Girl

Photo is courtesy of Artist and Doctor Martin Kieselstein who published it in his book We Have No Other Land under the title The Yellow Star.

Here’s a testimony of a Jewish girl about the Yellow Badge
Eva Heyman, diary entry (31st March, 1944)

Today an order was issued that from now on Jews have to wear a yellow star-shaped patch. The order tells exactly how big the star patch must be, and that it must be sewn on every outer garment, jacket or coat…
Source: http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=9656

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Israel time

I hope that a manufacturer will make from this painting of a clock in a Star of David frame - a real product that will show Jews all over the world the Israel time...
Art reviewer Dr. Dalia Hakker-Orion wrote about Dick Ben Dor’s work:

Dick Ben Dor is an artist born in Holland whose early years were spent on a Dutch farm hiding from the Nazis. His works do not carry even the slightest trace of this traumatic past. His uncle, the artist Niko Broekman, has been a cardinal influence on his joyous colors and bubbling humour. There have been two other major influences on his artistic development, Mmoti Mizrachi and Professor John Byle. the forms remind one of cave paintings and ancient drawings on walls, or sometimes the work of primitive tribal artists. Dick Ben Dor is a founder member of “The Israel Miniature Art Society” and is one of their principal activists, as well an active member of the Painter’s & Sculptors Association of Israel.

Fritz Hirschberger

Dr. Stephen Feinstein sent me a link to Fritz Hirschberger’s (b. 1912 in Dresden) stunning painting titled THE CONCORDAT (the name of the 1933 agreement signed between the Vatican and Hitler) on the web site of The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.

The painting shows a Nazi soldier standing with a faceless Catholic priest on a Jew with a Yellow Badge.

Israeli Trees

photo is courtesy of Israeli artist Dick Ben Dor
John Byle, Professor of art, wrote about Dick Ben Dor’s work:

Dick Ben Dor creates a magical enchanted world which charms and captivates our senses. His work is open, frank and innocent, artless in a positive sense.

Saturday, May 12, 2007

Prayer

photo is courtesy of Israeli artist Dick Ben Dor.
His friend, Jacques Heller, wrote:

Painting is the way that man’s ideas, like tender plants, ripen into fruition. In the art of Dick Ben Dor, his colors sing. His world of symbols breaks through the barriers of life in a fusion of fantastic shapes that offer his audience a philosophical outlook into creation.