identityartmigration Archives - Fritz Ascher Society

Nov 12, 2025

Looted! The Nazi Art Plunder of Jewish Families in France
Book talk by Peter Elliott (France)

Rachel Stern2025-11-12T08:11:32-05:00November 12th, 2025|Events, Lectures|Comments Off on Looted! The Nazi Art Plunder of Jewish Families in France
Book talk by Peter Elliott (France)

In this book talk Peter Elliott speaks about the lives and art collections of four French Jewish families, whose art was looted and whose businesses were confiscated during the Nazi Occupation of France (1940-44). He speaks about their businesses and art collections, and the journeys of their paintings during wartime and beyond. Image above: Detail of book cover REGISTER HERE If you are interested but can’t attend the event, please register anyways and you will receive the link to the recording. Participating in the event enables you to ask questions and be part of the discussion following the talk. Max Heilbronn and Raoul Mayer, 1926 © All rights reserved [...]

Oct 23, 2025

Flight or Fight? Artists in Nazi Germany, 1933-1945
Presentation by Rachel Stern, New York

Rachel Stern2025-10-23T08:03:39-04:00October 23rd, 2025|Events, Lectures|Comments Off on Flight or Fight? Artists in Nazi Germany, 1933-1945
Presentation by Rachel Stern, New York

Between 1933 and 1945, the National Socialist regime controlled artistic work in Germany. Join Rachel Stern, founding director of the Fritz Ascher Society for Persecuted, Ostracized and Banned Art, for a discussion about the system of fear and control installed by the Nazis, its impact on the national cultural landscape, and artists’ strategies of survival. This event is part of the 2025-26 KHC and National Endowment for the Humanities Colloquium, “Resistance, Resilience and Reinvention: Artists and Academics Escaping Nazism.” It is co-sponsored by the Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center in White Plains; the Center for Genocide and Human Rights Research in Africa and the Diaspora at Northeastern Illinois University; the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human [...]

Oct 23, 2025

From Vienna to Movies:
Costume Designer Ruth Morley at 100, a birthday commemoration.
Presentation by Melissa Hacker and Susan Gammie

Rachel Stern2025-10-23T06:46:31-04:00October 23rd, 2025|Events, Lectures|Comments Off on From Vienna to Movies:
Costume Designer Ruth Morley at 100, a birthday commemoration.
Presentation by Melissa Hacker and Susan Gammie

In this virtual event, the life and work of Costume Designer Ruth Morley will be discussed by her daughter Melissa Hacker and Susan Gammie, her assistant, protégé and close friend. Ruth Morley (1925-1991) fled her childhood home in Vienna on a Kindertransport as an unaccompanied child refugee, arrived in New York City as a teenager, and became a noted costume designer whose career spanned decades and disciplines, including dance, opera, theater, film and television. Her film credits include American classics Tootsie, Annie Hall, Taxi Driver, The Chosen, Kramer vs Kramer and The Hustler; her theater, opera and dance credits include Death of Salesman (with Dustin Hoffman), The Threepenny Opera, Deathtrap, Miracle Worker (stage and film, for the film, she received an Oscar nomination), Billy Budd, the Golem, and many more. Television includes Playing for Time with Vanessa Redgrave and Mussolini with George C [...]

Oct 19, 2025

Confronting the Holocaust in Midcentury American Art
Presentation by Jennifer McComas, Bloomington (Indiana)

Rachel Stern2025-11-12T13:39:10-05:00October 19th, 2025|Events, Lectures, Past Events|Comments Off on Confronting the Holocaust in Midcentury American Art
Presentation by Jennifer McComas, Bloomington (Indiana)

The Holocaust’s profound impact on midcentury American art has been underrecognized and understudied. Jennifer McComas, curator of the current exhibition Remembrance and Renewal: American Artists and the Holocaust, 1940-1970 at Indiana University’s Eskenazi Museum of Art and primary author of the accompanying catalogue, explores the ways that American artists—American-born, immigrants, refugees from Nazi-occupied Europe, and Holocaust survivors—confronted the Holocaust in their work during the war and in the decades just after. Image above: Anna Walinska (American, born England, 1906-1997), Survivors – Exodus, 1958. Oil on canvas, 60 x 84 in. (152.4 x 213.4 cm). Gift of Rosina Rubin, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 2023.29. © Atelier Anna Walinska. Photo: Shanti Knight. [...]

Jul 10, 2025

Matisse at War. Art and Resistance in Nazi Occupied France
Book talk by Christopher C. Gorham

Rachel Stern2025-10-22T14:46:04-04:00July 10th, 2025|Events, Lectures, Past Events|Comments Off on Matisse at War. Art and Resistance in Nazi Occupied France
Book talk by Christopher C. Gorham

In this book talk, author Christopher C. Gorham speaks about the artist Henri Matisse (1869-1954) and his steadfastness to live and work during the years of World War II and the Nazi occupation of France. When the Degenerate Art exbibit opened in Munich in the summer of 1937, works by notable foreign modernists were denigrated along with German artists. Henri Matisse’s Blue Window (1913) was legally seized by the Nazi regime for inclusion in the traveling exhibit, and his work was banned from German museums. Henri Matisse was among the modernists derided by the Nazis. That did not stop them from stealing his art. At the Jeu de Paume Museum, Paris, [...]

Apr 28, 2025

DEAR MISS PERKINS.
A Story of Frances Perkins’s Efforts to Aid Refugees from Nazi Germany
Book talk by Rebecca Brenner Graham, Ph.D.

Rachel Stern2025-07-09T14:20:40-04:00April 28th, 2025|Events, Lectures, Past Events|Comments Off on DEAR MISS PERKINS.
A Story of Frances Perkins’s Efforts to Aid Refugees from Nazi Germany
Book talk by Rebecca Brenner Graham, Ph.D.

In this book talk, author Rebecca Brenner Graham, Ph.D. speaks about “DEAR MISS PERKINS. A Story of Frances Perkins’s Efforts to Aid Refugees from Nazi Germany,” which focusses on an unknown aspect of Frances Perkins’ prolific career as the first woman to serve in a presidential cabinet, the longest-serving labor secretary, and an architect of the New Deal. Perkins’s early experiences working in Chicago’s famed Hull House, and as a firsthand witness to the horrific Triangle Shirtwaist fire, shaped her determination to advocate for immigrants and refugees. As Secretary of Labor, she wrestled with widespread antisemitism and isolationism, finding creative ways to work around quotas and restrictive immigration laws. Diligent, resilient, empathetic, yet steadfast, she [...]

Aug 9, 2024

BOOK TALK: Welcoming the Stranger.
Abrahamic Hospitality and Its Contemporary Implications
Georgetown University, Washington (DC)

Rachel Stern2024-09-20T07:15:28-04:00August 9th, 2024|Events, Lectures, Past Events|Comments Off on BOOK TALK: Welcoming the Stranger.
Abrahamic Hospitality and Its Contemporary Implications
Georgetown University, Washington (DC)

Welcoming the Stranger, a collection of essays, explores hospitality and inclusion in Abrahamic traditions from historical, theoretical, theological, and practical perspectives. It offers an enlightening and compelling discussion of what the Abrahamic traditions teach us regarding welcoming people we don't know. Join the Center for Jewish Civilization and Mortara Center for International Studies for a conversation with editors Ori Soltes and Rachel Stern, refreshments, and a book signing. Image above: David Stern, Snow Crash (Lost Agency), 2018-19. Acrylics and pigments on paper, 27 x 35 inches. © David Stern / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York This timely book offers theoretical and practical reflections on 'welcoming the stranger.' From the theological analysis of Abraham to the [...]

Feb 4, 2024

BOOK LAUNCH: Welcoming the Stranger.
Abrahamic Hospitality and Its Contemporary Implications
Fordham University, New York

Rachel Stern2024-03-26T17:07:03-04:00February 4th, 2024|Events, Lectures, Past Events|Comments Off on BOOK LAUNCH: Welcoming the Stranger.
Abrahamic Hospitality and Its Contemporary Implications
Fordham University, New York

Join us for an evening of stimulating conversation, and refreshments, as we celebrate the publication of Welcoming the Stranger. Abrahamic Traditions and Its Contemporary Implications. Advance copies of the book are available for purchase. This book is a collection of thought-provoking essays exploring the theme of hospitality as a means of building bridges between different cultures and communities. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in interfaith dialogue, social justice, and creating a more inclusive society. Its contents could hardly be more relevant today. Beginning with the story of Abraham’s hospitality to the three strangers described in Genesis18, the narrative explores both the theological evolution in and beyond the Abrahamic traditions of the principle of “welcoming the stranger,” [...]

Feb 1, 2024

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter February 2024

Rachel Stern2024-02-27T06:14:25-05:00February 1st, 2024|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter February 2024

Is this the month of love, just because Valentine's Day is on the 14th? Let's just make it about love - love for those who are marginalized and persecuted, and those who have to leave their home to save their lives, and find a new home, some even multiple times during their lifetime. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14 ONLINE 12:00 PM EST ”THE ART OF MARC KLIONSKY: Shaping a Three-World Condition from Minsk to New York" REGISTER FOR THIS ONLINE EVENT HERE In this event Georgetown University professor and author, Ori Z Soltes, will explore the life and work of Marc Klionsky (1927–2017), in part through conversation with his daughter, the scholar and artist, Nadia Klionsky. [...]

Jan 12, 2024

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter January 2024

Rachel Stern2024-01-24T06:51:51-05:00January 12th, 2024|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter January 2024

We hope that 2024 started well for you. This is our 10th anniversary year, and we are planning many stimulating and thought provoking events and programs, and even two publications to celebrate this milestone. On Friday, January 27, is the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau by the Red Army in 1945. We commemorate this date as the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Leading up to that day, we invite you to once again participate in #EVERYNAMECOUNTS. DATAENTRY CHALLENGE #EVERYNAMECOUNTS The Arolsen Archives are working on the world’s most comprehensive online archive of the people who were persecuted and murdered by the National Socialists. Join us for the third year in recording names and paths [...]

Dec 22, 2023

Happy Holidays!

Rachel Stern2024-01-24T06:16:58-05:00December 22nd, 2023|Newsletter|Comments Off on Happy Holidays!

In 1901, the eight-year-old German-Jewish artist Fritz Ascher (Berlin, 1893-1970) drew mother and son negotiating the purchase of a Christmas tree. This is the first known artwork by the artist, which he sketched in graphite and then executed in ink on paper. Fritz Ascher, Winter Scene, 1901. Graphite and black ink on paper, 13.8 x 10.4 inches. Copyright Bianca Stock Find out more about Fritz Ascher in our short biographical film: WATCH "FRITZ ASCHER, EXPRESSIONIST (1893-1970)" Some years later, around 1913, Fritz Ascher draws a conductor on the verso of that same sheet of paper. The caricature shows Ascher’s tenderness and admiration: music, especially Beethoven’s music, accompanied him wherever [...]

Nov 28, 2023

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter December 2023

Rachel Stern2024-01-24T05:48:25-05:00November 28th, 2023|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter December 2023

#GivingTuesday is here — a 24-hour period of global giving to non-profits! You know what we do, and you know how clear the importance of fact-based historical context has become. And we’ll step up our work telling untold stories of marginalized artists persecuted by the German regime 1933-1945 — a time of societal and political challenges that very much resonates with today’s challenges. Start this day of giving by making your donation to support our virtual programs that you enjoy! DONATE TODAY Fleeing Nazi persecution, he came to Australia. Not as a free man like the photographer Horst Eisfelder, but as a British deportee on the Dunera, heading for the internment camps at Hay in New [...]