us-005578-irn522897-irn523168
has or had identifier: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn522897-irn523168/alternateIDs/1
date: 1945 December 09
record resource extent: overall: Height: 8.380 inches (21.285 cm) | Width: 5.750 inches (14.605 cm)
has or had holder: us-005578
identifier: irn523168
has or had subject: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/vocabularies/ehri-ghettos/319
is or was included in: us-005578-irn522897
archival history: The artwork was acquired by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2005.
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
type: RecordSet
scope and content: Sketch created by Alexander Bogen while he was a partisan fighter in the Naroch Forest in Belarussia during World War II. Bogen was an art student in Vilna in 1941 when Germany invaded and occupied Lithuania and neighboring countries. In the Vilna ghetto, he sketched scenes of the life of his fellow Jews interned there by the Germans. “An artist doomed to death,” he said in later years, “recording and so preserving those doomed to death.” In 1943, he escaped the ghetto and joined the partisans, who carried out sabotage and other actions against the occupying German military. He helped lead the all-Jewish Nekama (Revenge) partisan brigade, and reentered the Vilna ghetto to help underground fighters escape as it was being liquidated by the Germans. When Lithuania was liberated in 1944 by Soviet forces, he returned to Vilna and resumed his studies.
physical characteristics and technical requirements: Drawing in charcoal on rectangular, yellow paper. It depicts a scene of soldiers with fur hats, long, belted coats, and rifles hanging over their shoulders, in groupings in an outdoor landscape of trees, small structures, and rolling ground. In the center foreground are 2 soldiers standing next to each other in portrait. On the left and farther back is a soldier standing in left profile. On the right is a soldier standing in rear profile. In the center background is a row of soldiers with a flag at the left end. The artist’s signature, a date, and Russian text are in the bottom right corner. front, bottom right corner, in black pencil : (Russian text) [Naroch?]
biographical history: Alexander Katzenbogen was born January 24, 1916, in Tartu, Estonia. His parents were both doctors. His father was from a secular Jewish background; his mother was the daughter of Rabbi Tuvia Lobitzki of Volkovysk, Poland (now in Belarus). When Alexander was two years old, the family moved to Vilna, Lithuania. The atmosphere in the home as he was growing up was liberal. His parents were socialists; he was a member of the Socialist-Zionist youth group Hashomer Hatzair. He married Rachel Shachor (b. 1914). In 1941, Alexander was studying art at the University of Vilna. At that time, Vilna was under Soviet rule. On June 22, Germany invaded the Soviet Union and German planes bombed Vilna. Alexander and Rachel joined a large exodus from the city on foot toward the east. They got as far as Minsk, a distance of over a hundred miles, before German military activity forced them to turn back and return to Vilna. The journey east and then back to the west took months. Along the way, Alexander began sketching what he saw of the suffering of his fellow Jews under the new German occupation. Alexander and Rachel were among the Jews confined to the Vilna ghetto, where Alexander joined the FPO, the Fareynikte Partizaner Organizatsye (United Partisan Organization), an underground organization inside the ghetto with paramilitary aspirations. He had the code name Shura. In addition to activities in the FPO, he sketched images of life in the ghetto. There was a debate within the FPO about whether to make a last stand against the Germans inside the ghetto, or to join partisans on the outside in the ongoing fight against the German occupation of the region. On July 29, 1943, a small band of FPO members, Alexander among them, escaped the ghetto and joined the Voroshilov brigade of partisans in the Naroch Forest, 60 miles to the east. The majority of the partisans there were non-Jewish Russians. An all-Jewish unit was formed, called Nekhamah (Revenge). Alexander and other members of the unit…
title: Drawing by Alexander Bogen of groupings of partisans in a wood, including a row of partisans with a flag
results or resulted from: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn522897-irn523168/acquisitions/1
conditions of use: Restrictions on use
has or had some members with language: rus
has record set type: Item