us-005578-irn50722-irn3279
is or was included in: us-005578-irn50722
has beginning date: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/dates/1948-01-01
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
conditions of use: No restrictions on use
has end date: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/dates/1948-12-31
has or had some members with language: eng
scope and content: Watercolor by Albert Dov Sigal made in 1948 while he was imprisoned with his wife, Rozi, and son, Daniel, in a British detention camp in Cyprus waiting for permission to enter Palestine. The painting shows a group of men sitting inside a tent with the wire fence of the detention camp in the background. Palestine was ruled by the British under a United Nations mandate and the postwar immigration policy was very restrictive. Ships attempting to bring unauthorized refugees to the country were stopped and the passengers were interned. In 1939, Sigal was arrested by the fascist, antisemitic Romanian government and assigned to a forced labor battalion that repaired and built roads and railways. He started an underground art school with a group of friends and was active in the Romanian resistance. On December 27, 1947, the family sailed from Burgas, Bulgaria, towards Palestine aboard the Aliyah Bet illegal immigrant ship, Pan York. They were imprisoned by the British on Cyprus on December 31, 1947. Because his son was only 18 months old, Sigal and his family were permitted to enter Palestine on February 22, 1948. On May 14, the state of Israel was established and, within six months, all the refugees on Cyprus were welcomed into the Jewish homeland.
archival history: The watercolor painting was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1990 by Rose Sigal Ibsen, the widow of Albert Dov Sigal.
has or had holder: us-005578
title: Albert Dov Sigal watercolor painting of men seated in a tent in a detention camp created during his imprisonment
biographical history: Albert Dov Sigal was born in 1912 in Cluj-Napoca (Koloszvar), in the Transylvania region, when it was part of Hungary and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In the aftermath of World War I (1914-1918), it was conquered by Romania. His parents were Helen and Moses Sigal and he had a sister, Eda. His father died when he was three years old and though his mother worked hard to provide for the family, life was difficult and food was scarce. His family was not religious, though he attended synagogue. But from a young age, he was fascinated by the more joyful, communal life of the devout Hasidim. He joined the Maccabi Hatzair, a Zionist youth and sports organization. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts, specializing in painting, enameling, and copper engraving. In 1933, he moved to Bucharest. Albert exhibited widely and his work was acquired by the National Museum in Bucharest. But by 1939, he could not get work. He was arrested and made part of a forced labor battalion that repaired and built roads and railways. He had a near-fatal construction accident and then bribed Romanian authorities to keep him from heavy forced labor, until a non-Jewish Romanian artist friend got him a position in a local museum, Pinacoteca Statului. He joined with a group of artists, led by Maxi, to begin an underground art school. Romania had a long tradition of vicious antisemitism which was emboldened by the rise of Nazi Germany. Following years of near civil war, General Antonescu and the fascist Iron Guard seized power in late 1940. Jewish businesses were confiscated, property destroyed, and physical attacks and the murder of Jews became commonplace. In January 1941, there were pogroms throughout the country; the one in Bucharest had events of great savagery, such as the assembly and murder of dozens of Jews, including Albert’s uncle-in-law, in the slaughterhouse. In mid-1941, he married Rozi Cohn, who was active in the Zionist movement, Hanoar Hatzioni. She was born on August 22, 1922, in…
type: RecordSet
record resource extent: overall: Height: 13.000 inches (33.02 cm) | Width: 14.250 inches (36.195 cm) pictorial area: Height: 4.000 inches (10.16 cm) | Width: 5.250 inches (13.335 cm)
has record set type: Item
date: 1948 January-1948 February
identifier: irn3279
physical characteristics and technical requirements: Multi-colored watercolor painting with pencil underdrawings on rectangular light brown paper. In the center is a triangular green and brown tent divided into 2 compartments by a central support pole and partition. The open front flaps reveal 3 featureless men, 2 in caps, sitting inside; one reading a book. On the tent top is the number 2; a circular silver pan is hangs on the right tent flap and another sits n the ground. The central yellow pole extends through the tent top, bends to the left, and ends in a triangular shape, possibly a loudspeaker. In the left middle ground, standing in front of an opened gray and purplish brown tent, is a faceless woman wearing a white headscarf and robe, holding a baby. A barbed wire fence is in the background. The painting is covered with an unsecured piece of mylar and mounted to a white, rectangular hinged mat board. The back of the top board has shallow horizontal and vertical cuts. On the back of the bottom mat board is a number inscribed in ink, a purple stamp, and pieces of edge. mat board base, back, handwritten, blue ink : #6 mat board base, back, stamped in semi-circle , purple ink : FROM THE ESTATE OF / ALBERT D. SIGAL
results or resulted from: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn50722-irn3279/acquisitions/1
has or had identifier: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn50722-irn3279/alternateIDs/1