us-005578-irn514935-irn562311
type: RecordSet
archival history: The printing plate was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2009 by the Estate of Gertrude and Percy Brand.
biographical history: Perec Brandt (later Percy Brand) was born on April 2, 1908, in Liepāja, Latvia, to a Jewish couple, Abram and Basia Brandt. He had one sister named Mary, and at least one brother, Carpel. He began playing the violin at the age of ten. He married Sara Behrmann and they had two children, Judith Basya, born on November 22, 1930, and Mendel, born on August 8, 1933. The family lived in Riga, where Perec was the concertmaster of the Riga Latvian Symphony Orchestra. In August 1940, the Soviet Union annexed Latvia. In spring 1941, Germany attacked the Soviet Union and, by July 1941, Riga was occupied by German forces. SS Einsatzgruppen units [mobile killing units], assisted by the local population, rounded up and shot thousands of Jewish Latvians who were unable to work, especially children, women with small children, the elderly, and the ill. Perec’s wife and children were among those taken and murdered. Perec was forced into labor, stripped of his possessions, except his violin, and moved into the Riga ghetto, which was sealed soon after. Later, Perec met and married a Czechoslovakian woman named Margit Stransky Rekler, who had been deported from Vienna, Austria, to Riga in January 1942. In August 1943, he was sent to Riga-Kaiserwald concentration camp. In October, Perec was deported to Stutthof concentration camp near the German occupied city of Danzig. On August 16, 1944, he was transported to Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany, where he was assigned prisoner number 82321. Perec kept his violin with him during the transports, and in each camp it was confiscated and then returned to him. In Buchenwald, the commandant summoned him daily to play for him and rewarded him with bread, meat, and coffee. From late November 1944 to early January 1945, Perec was very sick and needed to be hospitalized. On April 11, 1945, the 6th Armored Division of the US Army marched into Buchenwald, several hours after the prisoners took control by storming the guard towers and forcing th…
physical characteristics and technical requirements: Rectangular, silver colored metal, offset lithographic printing plate with a 3 x 2 inch image of a man at the center depicted from the waist up, leaning in from the right while holding a violin. He is looking into the distance, his head turned slightly to the left, and his lips pressed together in a faint smile. He has dark, slicked back hair and is wearing a bowtie and tuxedo. The light colored background has 2 diagonal bands of darker shading. The plate has a blue tinted coating over the textured image surface: the darker image areas are smooth and deeply tinted, while the lighter ones are heavily textured and lightly tinted. Along each edge is a ¼ inch wide groove dividing the image from other dark, cut off areas, which are likely parts of images from a larger plate. The back is flat and tinted dark yellow with faint, penciled marks. back, handwritten, pencil : Per(?) / 2T MB
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
conditions of use: No restrictions on use
date: after 1949-1985 August 15
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has or had subject: 321
has record set type: Item
identifier: irn562311
is or was included in: us-005578-irn514935
record resource extent: overall: Height: 3.750 inches (9.525 cm) | Width: 2.625 inches (6.668 cm)
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: Tinted, offset lithographic, metal printing plate with a photograph of Perec Brandt (later Percy Brand) holding his violin (2006.133.2a-j), the same one used while a concentration camp inmate in Latvia and Germany from 1941 to 1945 and a displaced person in Germany from 1945 to 1949. Perec was the concertmaster of the Riga Latvian Symphony Orchestra in 1940 when the Soviets annexed Latvia. In June 1941, Latvia was under German occupation and Perec’s wife, daughter, and son were murdered by the SS Einsatzgruppen [mobile killing unit]. Perec was forced into the Riga ghetto, and later transferred to Riga-Kaiserwald, Stutthof, and Buchenwald concentration camps. In Buchenwald, he was ordered to play his violin for the commandant and was rewarded with extra rations. He kept his violin with him throughout his imprisonment and even slept with it. He was liberated from Buchenwald on April 11, 1945, by the United States Army. Perec weighed 50 pounds at liberation. He joined the Kibbutz Buchenwald, part of a displaced persons camp. Postwar, he performed with his violin in various DP camps where he met and married Grunia Lewin (later Gertrude), a survivor of Dondangen II, Stutthof, and Mühldorf concentration camps. They immigrated to the United States in February 1949.
title: Offset lithographic printing plate depicting Percy Brand holding his violin