David Friedmann

Dav. Friedman(n) a.k.a. David Friedmann was an accomplished artist before World War II and the Holocaust. In October 1941, he was deported from Prague to the Lodz Ghetto, then to Auschwitz-Birkenau, and Gleiwitz I. He survived a Death March to Concentration Camp Blechhammer, Oberschlesien where he was liberated January 25, 1945 by Soviet troops. In 1949, he fled Communist Czechoslovakia to Israel and later immigrated to the United States. Details of his life are found on the TIMELINE page of this website. Related link: Biography of David Friedmann (1893-1980)

Artist's Statement

I tried everything to make a living as a sign painter, as artist to sell pictures, and as a contractor again like in Berlin under the Nazi Regime. After Miriam was born, I had to work for three, harder than before and saw no future for us here in Israel. In 1951, I had a one-man show in Tel-Aviv with paintings of the concentration camps. I am sorry to say, the interest was only small and learned people did not want to talk about concentration camps.

After I was retired in 1962, sometimes I had the idea to try again, but was afraid to start, had no courage and also in consideration of my wife Hilde. I had to lock my feelings in a kind of jail and close the door. So sometimes I went out, painted pictures from nature and worked on my book, later I went to the libraries to make sketches, also sketches in the streets, parks and alleys. In March 1963, I had a small exhibition in the Central Library, but it was not satisfying. I thought about the time between 1946 and 1948 when I was a successful artist.

In December 1963, I had enough. I told myself that all the paintings on the wall mean nothing, they no longer satisfy me, anyone can paint like that. I have to do something that nobody can do in the same way. I opened the door of the jail and in the night quietly left our bedroom for my studio, placed a piece of paper on the easel, took charcoal and made my first sketch. Now I was free again and from that time on nobody was able to stop me. In the short time of only four and one-half months, twenty-eight new drawings were finished... Now I am satisfied, because what I am doing is not only for myself. I wish everyone had to take a good look at the artwork. They have to look at what persecution under the Nazi Regime was, and it can happen again, for in America to be a Nazi, to be a Communist is not prohibited.

Against an evil world I will work further to try to put my feelings down on canvas or paper against anti-Semitism, against race hatred of all people.

David Friedmann
1964

david friedmann with drawings

"Mother with Two Children in Lodz Ghetto (Litzmannstadt)"
1964. Charcoal, 24" x 18".
Drawing in collection of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington DC
Photo: St. Louis, Missouri, 1976

Related Information

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