WWII Archives - Fritz Ascher Society

Jun 2, 2024

Art and Internment.
Heinz Henghes the Stowaway Sculptor
Presentation by Ian Henghes, London (UK)

Rachel Stern2024-06-19T14:37:38-04:00June 2nd, 2024|Events, Lectures, Past Events|Comments Off on Art and Internment.
Heinz Henghes the Stowaway Sculptor
Presentation by Ian Henghes, London (UK)

Heinz Henghes (1906-1975) was born in Hamburg in 1906, a ‘Mischling’ of mixed Jewish and German descent. In America for almost 10 years before returning to Europe at a time of great political unrest Heinz spent time in Italy where he enjoyed the patronage of Ezra Pound, despite Pounds noted anti-semitism. In London at the outbreak of war Heinz was interned and sent to Australia on the notorious ship the Dunera. Ian Henghes, the artist's son, presents his father’s extraordinary story and the contact he had with other artists, writers and thinkers of his time. Image above: Heinz Henghes in Milan studio ca 1935 © Ian Henghes Ian Henghes is an online communications specialist working [...]

May 30, 2024

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter JUNE 2024

Rachel Stern2024-05-30T10:22:55-04:00May 30th, 2024|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter JUNE 2024

We have a special film for you, and you don't even have to leave your house to see it! Watch the film THE WILD ONE before June 5th on your home device. A link will be provided to all who register. Then join us as Chantal Perrin, the film’s French producer, speaks with Ori Z Soltes from Georgetown University in Washington DC. A link will be provided to all who register: WEDNESDAY, JUNE 5, ONLINE From Auschwitz to Hollywood: Jack Garfein, “THE WILD ONE” Film Screening and Conversation with French producer Chantal Perrin REGISTRATION FOR FREE FILM SCREENING AND ONLINE FILM DISCUSSION THE WILD ONE illuminates the journey of unsung artist Jack Garfein [...]

May 28, 2024

From Auschwitz to Hollywood: Jack Garfein, “THE WILD ONE”
Film Screening and Conversation with French producer Chantal Perrin

Rachel Stern2024-06-06T07:46:23-04:00May 28th, 2024|Events, Lectures, Past Events|Comments Off on From Auschwitz to Hollywood: Jack Garfein, “THE WILD ONE”
Film Screening and Conversation with French producer Chantal Perrin

THE WILD ONE illuminates the journey of unsung artist Jack Garfein (1930-2019) - Holocaust survivor, celebrated Broadway director, Actors Studio West co-founder, and controversial filmmaker. The film examines how his experience in Nazi concentration camps shaped his vision of acting as a survival mechanism and propelled his engagement with themes of violence, power, and racism in postwar America in two explosive films: THE STRANGE ONE (1957) and SOMETHING WILD (1961). THE WILD ONE explores the importance of his legacy as an artist who confronted censorship and reveals how art can draw on personal memory to better enlighten our present. Image above: Photo of Jack Garfein. Courtesy of Petite Maison Production WATCH THE TRAILER: [...]

May 1, 2024

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter MAY 2024

Rachel Stern2024-05-30T10:01:32-04:00May 1st, 2024|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter MAY 2024

May is American Jewish Heritage Month, and in our virtual series “Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression” we are discussing two fabulous artists, who both immigrated to the United States and lived in New York. Please note the unusual 7:00pm EST time of the first event, which accommodates the Hong Kong time zone of one of our speakers. I hope that you'll be comfortable by now to register for events via our new system. Please be aware that all virtual events are FREE OF CHARGE. However, we very much appreciate each and every donation. WEDNESDAY, May 8 ONLINE 7:00 PM EST "Let's Talk Interesting People:" THE STORY OF ERNA FRIEDLÄNDER (1890-1979) REGISTER FOR THIS ONLINE [...]

Apr 17, 2024

“Let’s Talk of Interesting People”:
The Story of Erna Friedländer (1890-1979)
With Noit Banai, PhD, Hong Kong, and Ketul Arnold, Boulder (Colorado)

Rachel Stern2024-05-08T21:07:06-04:00April 17th, 2024|Events, Lectures, Past Events|Comments Off on “Let’s Talk of Interesting People”:
The Story of Erna Friedländer (1890-1979)
With Noit Banai, PhD, Hong Kong, and Ketul Arnold, Boulder (Colorado)

This presentation by Noit Banai, PhD, Hong Kong, and Ketul Arnold, Boulder (Colorado), traces Erna Friedländer‘s unique journey as a German refugee who survived Nazi persecution and World War II in Hong Kong, and subsequently migrated to England, Israel, and the USA. Image above: Erna Friedländer, Chinese Landscape. Undated. Monotype. Courtesy The Studio: An Illustrated Magazine of Fine and Applied Art, London As a German refugee who survived World War II in Hong Kong, and subsequently migrated to England, Israel, and the USA, Erna Friedländer’s journey is unique among the many histories of Jewish dispossession. Though few traces remain of Friedländer artistic oeuvre, she was a thoroughly modernist artist. Painter, printmaker, and teacher at the [...]

Apr 2, 2024

Steinberg before STEINBERG
Lecture by Mario Tedeschini Lalli, Rome (Italy)

Rachel Stern2024-05-22T13:55:25-04:00April 2nd, 2024|Events, Lectures, Past Events|Comments Off on Steinberg before STEINBERG
Lecture by Mario Tedeschini Lalli, Rome (Italy)

In this presentation Mario Tedeschini Lalli, Italian journalist and scholar of 20th century history, tells the story of Saul Steinberg, before he became STEINBERG, the majuscules with which he signed his name to the art most people know, using some of his public art, some of his clandestine art, some of his personal art and - yes – some of his top secret art. Image above: Saul Steinberg, Seaside, 1941. © The Saul Steinberg Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS) New York The art of Saul Steinberg (1914-1999) was arguably one of the most recognizable for the US public from the mid-1940s until his death in 1999. Much of Steinberg’s best-known work appeared in magazines such as [...]

Mar 27, 2024

Bruno Schulz (1892-1942):
An Artist, a Murder, and the Hijacking of History
Benjamin Balint and Ori Z Soltes in Conversation

Rachel Stern2024-04-03T13:56:09-04:00March 27th, 2024|Events, Lectures, Past Events|Comments Off on Bruno Schulz (1892-1942):
An Artist, a Murder, and the Hijacking of History
Benjamin Balint and Ori Z Soltes in Conversation

Benjamin Balint, author of the National Jewish Book Award winning book, and Georgetown University professor Ori Z Soltes in conversation. Bruno Schulz is renowned as a master of twentieth-century imaginative fiction. Isaac Bashevis Singer called him “one of the most remarkable writers who ever lived.” But Schulz was also an exceptionally talented graphic artist whose masochistic drawings would catch the eye of a sadistic Nazi officer. Schulz’s art became the currency in which he bought life. Image above: Bruno Schulz, Mural, 1941-1942. Drohobycz. Discovery Benjamin Geissler, 2001. Drawing on extensive new reporting and archival research, Benjamin Balint chases the inventive murals Schulz painted on the walls of an SS villa—the last traces of his vanished [...]

Mar 26, 2024

RESISTANCE –
THEY FOUGHT BACK
New York Theatrical Release

Rachel Stern2024-04-16T05:35:20-04:00March 26th, 2024|Events, Lectures, Past Events|Comments Off on RESISTANCE –
THEY FOUGHT BACK
New York Theatrical Release

Told by survivors, their children, and expert witnesses from the U.S. Israel, and Europe, Resistance: They Fought Back, is a revelation based on extensive research of how the Jews of Europe fought back. It uncovers evidence of non-violent methods which served as crucial tools of resistance and evolved into Jewish armed revolts in ghettos, forests and death camps, even as the odds of success were vanishingly small. On Monday, April 15, the 7:00pm film screening will be followed by Q&A with director Paula S. Apsell and Avinoa J. Patt, Ph.D., Professor of Holocaust Studies, New York University. Watch the TRAILER here: We’ve all heard of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, but most people have no idea [...]

Mar 26, 2024

The Vel d’Hiv Round-Up:
The Largest Mass Arrest in Wartime French History
A Presentation by Eileen Angelini, PhD

Rachel Stern2024-04-10T17:58:02-04:00March 26th, 2024|Events, Lectures, Past Events|Comments Off on The Vel d’Hiv Round-Up:
The Largest Mass Arrest in Wartime French History
A Presentation by Eileen Angelini, PhD

On July 16-17, 1942 in Occupied Paris, more than 13,000 French Jews were arrested by French Police. The victims were held in deplorable conditions at the Vélodrome d'Hiver or Vel d'Hiv, an indoor cycling stadium until they were sent to detainment camps outside of Paris where they either died or were deported to concentration camps. Dr. Eileen Angelini’s presentation will discuss how the Vichy Government planned this round-up and how the French government and people have since dealt with the pain and shame of this traumatic event. Image above: Entrance to the Vel’ d’Hiv (the Winter Stadium, or Velodrome d'Hiver), where Jews were detained en-masse in preparation for their deportation to concentration camps in France. [...]

Mar 6, 2024

The Miraculous San Francisco Discovery of
Ary Arkady Lochakov’s Lost Art
A Talk by Journalist Julie Zigoris, San Francisco

Rachel Stern2024-03-27T13:42:26-04:00March 6th, 2024|Events, Lectures, Past Events|Comments Off on The Miraculous San Francisco Discovery of
Ary Arkady Lochakov’s Lost Art
A Talk by Journalist Julie Zigoris, San Francisco

One sunny May day in 2022—halfway around the world from Paris where the Jewish artist Ary Arkady Lochakov (1892-1941) died of malnutrition in 1941—a miraculous discovery was made. Maintenance staff came upon 48 abandoned artworks in a waterside park, all of them carefully arranged as if they were meant to be discovered. 38 of the 48 artworks all had the same signature: Ary Arkady Lochakov. Port employees researched Lochakov to discover he was a member of the famed École de Paris and was featured in Hersh Fenster's essential book Our Martyred Artists. San Francisco Standard journalist Julie Zigoris was the first (and only) to report the story to the public, following the trail of breadcrumbs to make some incredible [...]

Feb 26, 2024

Traces of a Jewish Artist:
The Lost Life and Work of Rahel Szalit (1888–1942)
A Book Talk by Kerry Wallach, Gettysburg College

Rachel Stern2024-03-07T07:17:49-05:00February 26th, 2024|Events, Lectures, Past Events|Comments Off on Traces of a Jewish Artist:
The Lost Life and Work of Rahel Szalit (1888–1942)
A Book Talk by Kerry Wallach, Gettysburg College

In this presentation, Gettysburg College professor and author Kerry Wallach explores the life and work of Rahel Szalit (1888–1942; also: Szalit-Marcus). Szalit was a sought-after illustrator and painter who was active in 1920s Berlin and 1930s Paris. Image above: Rahel Szalit-Marcus, The Drive to the Rabbi, in Milgroym, 1922. Lithograph. Rahel Szalit was among the best-known Jewish women artists in Weimar Berlin. She painted and drew landscapes, Berlin city scenes, animals, and portraits of women, children, and public figures. She produced numerous lithographs and worked in pen and ink, pencil, pastel, chalk, oil paint, and watercolors. Women figured prominently in many scenes, from small-town Jewish life to snapshots of the metropolis. [...]

Feb 2, 2024

„I’m always on the go…” –
The painter Franz Domscheit / Pranas Domšaitis (1880-1965)
Lecture by Jan Rüttinger, Lüneburg (Germany)

Rachel Stern2024-02-28T14:34:35-05:00February 2nd, 2024|Events, Lectures, Past Events|Comments Off on „I’m always on the go…” –
The painter Franz Domscheit / Pranas Domšaitis (1880-1965)
Lecture by Jan Rüttinger, Lüneburg (Germany)

Searching, wandering, not arriving - this is how the person and art of Franz Domscheit/Pranas Domšaitis can be characterized. Born into a German-Lithuanian family as the son of a farmer and innkeeper, it was primarily his Lithuanian origins that interested him. The early landscape and cultural impressions of his homeland, Prussian-Lithuania, at the interface of German and Lithuanian culture, shaped his work throughout his life. Landscape is one of the painter's main themes, who is primarily perceived as an expressionist. Image above: Franz Domscheit, Two Peasant Women, 1930s. Oil on canvas. Copyright National Lithuanian Art Museum. Trained at the Königsberg Art Academy by Ludwig Dettmann, among others, Domscheit then moved out into the world. Berlin, [...]