Posters Artwork Documents

Felix Nussbaum, 1904-1944.

Felix Nussbaum Haus (Museum), Osnabruck.

"Self-Portrait with Jewish Pass" by German-Jewish Surrealist painter, Felix Nussbaum (1943). Nussbaum was born at Osnabruck, Hanover, in 1904. His father was a WW1 German war veteran. Felix and his wife, Felka Platek, went into exile in Belgium following Hitler's accession to power. After the German occupation of Belgium, Nussbaum was interned in France, but escaped and went into hiding along with Platek in Brussels. Support from Belgian friends enabled them to live, and Nussbaum to continue painting. In July, 1944, the couple were arrested in an attic hiding-place, and transported East. They ended up in Auschwitz-Birkenau on 2 August, 1944, and were murdered there on or about that date. This painting, among others, was found in his hidden studio after his arrest. Felix Nussbaum's father and mother had been killed at Auschwitz earlier in 1944; a brother, sister-in-law and niece would be killed there in September of that year. His other brother died of ill-treatment at the Stutthof concentration/death camp in Danzig. The family was thus extinguished. Rest in Peace. JR.