us-005578-irn518230-irn518444
has or had some members with language: fra
conditions of use: No restrictions on use
identifier: irn518444
record resource extent: overall: Height: 10.125 inches (25.718 cm) | Width: 15.250 inches (38.735 cm)
has or had identifier: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn518230-irn518444/alternateIDs/1
has or had holder: us-005578
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
biographical history: Alfred Moritz was the son of Ludwig David Moritz and Klara Kaufman. He was born on June 13, 1930, in the small town of Becherbach, Germany, where his father’s family had lived for centuries. His father, born in 1884, was the eldest of eight children, a decorated veteran of World War I, and in charge of the family’s successful dry goods business and store. Before their marriage in 1929, Alfred’s mother had been a hat designer with her own shop in Gindorf, near Cologne. There was a second son, Ernst, born on July 21, 1932. They shared a home with Alfred’s paternal grandmother, Regina Wendel (d. 1938). They were prosperous, observant Jews in a predominately Lutheran town, but there was no ethnic strife and Alfred’s father was active in village life. On January 30, 1933, Hitler was appointed Chancellor and, within a few months, the Nazi dictatorship was firmly established. Ludwig moved his family to Saarbruecken where he had a brother, Jakob, as it was then under French control. But soon afterwards, there was a plebiscite and the Saar region was reintegrated with Germany. The Moritz family returned to Beckerbach to be closer to family, especially Ludwig’s aged mother, and because they were not ready to leave Germany. Alfred attended public school though, as a Jew, he was not allowed to participate in most group activities. There were occasional government-organized boycotts of Jewish businesses and anti-Jewish rallies in the village; Alfred’s school friends would march by his house singing hate songs about killing all the Jews. The family began to plan to emigrate to the United States. The November 9-10 Kristallnacht pogrom in Bechberbach was carried out by thugs from a nearby village; the dry goods store was vandalized, but a non-Jewish friend of his father’s protected the Moritz’s home. Alfred’s father was arrested and sent first to a local prison, then to Dachau concentration camp. A few days after Kristallnacht, Alfred’s paternal aunt and her husband, Antoinette and…
has beginning date: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/dates/1994-01-01
scope and content: Watercolor created by Alfred Moritz in 1994 of the house where he and his family lived in hiding in Ste. Lizaigne, France, from May-September 1940. In May 1940, the Moritz family fled Becherbach, Germany, for France. Alfred, age 10, his brother, Ernst, age 8, and their mother, Klara, were hidden in and near Sainte Lizaigne by Helene and Marthe Forestier for nearly 2 years. When his father, Ludwig, joined them in September after his release from an internment camp, the family could no longer stay in the house in Ste. Lizaigne. They lived in a nearby village until 1942, when the Vichy authorities began to deport Jewish refugees to concentration camps. Alfred and his brother were separated from their parents and hidden by OSE (Ouevre des Secours Enfants) in an orphanage. Then, as the blue-eyed, blond haired brothers were fluent in French, they were placed on a primitive farm in southern France. Their parents found refuge in a private insane asylum near Toulouse. Germany surrendered in France on August 2, 1944, and by the end of the year, the family was reunited.
is or was included in: us-005578-irn518230
physical characteristics and technical requirements: Painting in watercolor on rectangular white paper depicting brown and gray train tracks flanked by bright yellow houses with red roofs and chimneys. The tracks lead through green foliage and past a white signpost with a yellow sign stating: 034 / STE. LIZAIGNE. A person with a yellow head and red torso walks with a black dog away from the track’s crossing gate. The house Alfred hid in is painted the brightest yellow and is located directly behind the pedestrian. A yellow church steeple rises above the town in the upper left corner. The sky is shaded light and dark blue. The scene is painted from the perspective of someone standing on the train tracks.
has record set type: Item
title: Colorful watercolor of the house where the painter lived as a hidden child
results or resulted from: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn518230-irn518444/acquisitions/1
has end date: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/dates/2000-12-31
date: 1940 May-1940 September
type: RecordSet
archival history: The watercolor was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2006 by Alfred Moritz.