Shamefullythe bluefills roomswith death color,it swirlsamethyst-crystalsto paintdeath ontocanvasforgetting the blueof the seato pour deaththrough skyto take awaybreath,deceiving with themost beautifulof blues,raining deathblue.- Alice Rogoff, San Francisco, 1991Zyklon B (Prussic acid in the form of amethyst-colored crystals) was used as a killin...
Creator:
Hirschberger, Fritz, 1912-2004
Created:
1990?
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
Zegota is the code name of the Council for Aid to Jews (Rada Pomocy Zydom), an underground organization that operated in occupied Poland from 1942-1945. Its express purpose was to aid Poland's Jews, finding them places of safety. Zegota was the only rescue organization that was run jointly by Jews and non-Jews from a wide range of political move...
Creator:
Hirschberger, Fritz, 1912-2004
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
"The Fifth Horseman Series" continues the work begun in Fritz Hisrchberger’s “Sur-Rational Holocaust Paintings” series, and should not be be seen as independent of one another. The exhibition draws its title from Hirschberger’s painting of the same name, which references the Book of Revelations (6:1-8): “And now I saw a pale horse, and its rider...
Creator:
Hirschberger, Fritz, 1912-2004
Created:
1990?
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
In this painting, Hirschberger uses the image of the Virgin Mary and Jesus, as seen in pre-and early Renaissance painting, most likely a reference to Giotto’s Ognissanti Madonna (1310) an artist Hirschberger admired. In contrast he also places a Jewish mother and child appearing naked and in concentration camp garments. Attached by the contrapti...
Creator:
Hirschberger, Fritz, 1912-2004
Created:
1990?
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
We have lived here in believingWhat we were taught:That things consist in their consistencyAnd we have built on this foundationA castle of playing cardsWith the appearance of appearancesWith shadows of shadows.- Miguel de UnamunoGerman Jews had lived for hundreds of years in Germany, making tremendous contributions to German science, industry, e...
Creator:
Hirschberger, Fritz, 1912-2004
Created:
1990?
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
The scene juxtaposes two images. In the foreground, there is a survivor in old age, holding a toy that evokes the images, fragments of memory, of those in his family, particularly children, who have been lost during the Holocaust. In the background, a woman with a child, possibly his wife, is going into the gas chambers, which were routinely lab...
Creator:
Hirschberger, Fritz, 1912-2004
Created:
1990?
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
Dr. Josef Mengele was known in Auschwitz as "The Angel of Death" for his demeanor during the selections on the ramp. Mengele earned his Ph.D. in physical anthropology from the University of Munich in 1937 and worked at the Institute for "Erbbiologie und Rassenhygiene" (Hereditary Biology and Racial Hygiene) with Dr. Otmar von Verschuer, a leadin...
Creator:
Hirschberger, Fritz, 1912-2004
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
This image is a variant of the "hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil" theme. The Catholic priest on the left has no mouth; the Rabbi in the center has no eyes; the Protestant Minister on the right has no ears. This is the artist's commentary on the indifference of the outside world toward genocide, especially by religious leadership.
Creator:
Hirschberger, Fritz, 1912-2004
Created:
1990?
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
The making of Hitler and the seduction of Germania was the direct result of the harsh conditions of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, imposed on Germany on the insistence of a vengeful France. The treaty was never ratified by the United States Senate. Hitler blamed all the ills that befell the Weimar Republic in 1922, 1923, and again in 1929 on the...
Creator:
Hirschberger, Fritz, 1912-2004
Created:
1990?
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
Melting the tallow heretics,Ousting the Jews.Their thick palls floatOver the cicatrix of Poland, burnt-outGermany.They do not die.Grey birds obsess my heart,Mouth-ash, ash of eye.They settle. On the highPrecipiceThat emptied one man into spaceThe ovens glowed like heavens, incandescent.It is a heart,This holocaust I walk in,O golden child the wo...
Creator:
Hirschberger, Fritz, 1912-2004
Created:
1990?
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
Hirschberger created a visual pun combining the name of the ship and the name of a famous Blues song. The "Blues" is a genre of music that originated among African-Americans in the Deep South, blending African and European Folk tunes, incorporating chants, spirituals and work songs (which during slavery were sometimes used to convey codes and me...
Creator:
Hirschberger, Fritz, 1912-2004
Created:
1990?
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
The "price for silence" is the loss of one's own rights. One of the best commentaries on this was by Martin Niemoller (1892-1984):First they came for the Communists,and I didn't speak up,because I wasn't a Communist.Then they came for the Jews,and I didn't speak up,because I wasn't a Jew.Then they came for the Catholics,and I didn't speak up,bec...
Creator:
Hirschberger, Fritz, 1912-2004
Created:
1990?
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
The painting resembles various paintings of the Last Supper. the most famous being Leonardo da Vinci's from (1494-98). The Last Supper serves as a symbol of betrayal by the world to accept and protect Jews fleeing from Nazi Germany.
Creator:
Hirschberger, Fritz, 1912-2004
Created:
1990?
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
A Nazi guard talking to a nine year old Jewish boy who is on his way to be gassed in an Auschwitz gas chamber:"Well my boy, you know a lot for your age""I know that I know a lot, and I also know that I won't learn any more," the boy replies.- From the sworn testimony of witness Wolken; 1965 trial of Nazi criminals. Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
Creator:
Hirschberger, Fritz, 1912-2004
Created:
1990?
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
Kulmhof, or Chelmno, located in Poland, was the first Nazi extermination camp. After the victims arrived at Chelmno, they were taken in groups of fifty - men, women and children - to the ground floor of the Schloss (manor-house). There, they were told to strip and put their valuables in a basket. The victims were then taken to the cellar, past s...
Creator:
Hirschberger, Fritz, 1912-2004
Created:
1990?
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
The image refers to the medical experimentation done on inmates at various concentration camps. The most infamous experiments were at Dachau (hypothermia and high-altitude experiments), Dr. Mengele’s lethal experiments on twins at Auschwitz and simulated gunshot experiments on women at Ravensbruck. The paradox of the Nazi era was that an order f...
Creator:
Hirschberger, Fritz, 1912-2004
Created:
1990?
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
This painting is a reference to the Catholic Church failing to honor the legacy of Saint Peter, the First Pope. It criticizes Pope Pius XII's resistance to intercede for the Jews because of his fear of Communism. The ten men holding the fish (a symbol of St. Peter) refer to a "minyan," which in Hebrew refers to the quorum of ten Jews necessary f...
Creator:
Hirschberger, Fritz, 1912-2004
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
For every evil under the sunThere is a remedy or there is noneIf there be one, seek till you find itIf there be none, never mind it.- Mother GooseIn the Christian Bible, the Book of Revelations (6:1-8) tells the story of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse who symbolize the four elements of destruction: Famine, Pestilence, War, and Death. The fo...
Creator:
Hirschberger, Fritz, 1912-2004
Created:
1990?
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
The hooked cross (swastika), placed in the center of the traditional symbol of Christianity, was adopted by the Protestant German Christian Movement (Deutsche Christen, or D.C.) as their symbol. As a group within the German Protestant Church, it was openly endorsed by the Nazi party. In 1933 they dominated the unifying process of the 29 regional...
Creator:
Hirschberger, Fritz, 1912-2004
Created:
1990?
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
On July 20, 1933 a treaty (the Concordat) was signed between the German government and the Vatican.The agreement gave Catholics the freedom of private religious practice in return for the Vatican’s recognition of the legitimacy of the Nazi government. The treaty also effectively dissolved Catholic political and trade union organizations which in...
Creator:
Hirschberger, Fritz, 1912-2004
Created:
1990?
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
![The Transmutations of Dr. Mengele [Children into Angels]](https://dkp5i0hinw9br.cloudfront.net/81ff80844f09b0b0d9c3b623c38a3d0a1a506ed7.png "The Transmutations of Dr. Mengele [Children into Angels]")
