us-005578-irn522897-irn523169
has or had identifier: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn522897-irn523169/alternateIDs/1
title: Drawing by Alexander Bogen of a partisan standing in uniform
physical characteristics and technical requirements: Drawing in charcoal on rectangular, yellow paper. It depicts a man standing in portrait, wearing a cap, a belted shirt with epaulets and a stand-up collar, and trousers tucked into boots. He leans to his right, resting his weight on his right foot, and looks slightly to his left. The artist’s signature and a year are in the bottom right corner. The back has an image of a man’s head wearing a hat.
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.
results or resulted from: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn522897-irn523169/acquisitions/1
has end date: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/dates/1945-12-31
is or was included in: us-005578-irn522897
has or had some members with language: rus
record resource extent: overall: Height: 7.810 inches (19.837 cm) | Width: 10.620 inches (26.975 cm)
has or had holder: us-005578
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
identifier: irn523169
has beginning date: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/dates/1945-01-01
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…
conditions of use: Restrictions on use
has or had subject: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/vocabularies/ehri-ghettos/319
has record set type: Item
archival history: The artwork was acquired by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2005.