Physical Description
Framed portrait of man from waist up, in uniform jacket and cap. Gold colored wood frame.
Dimensions
overall : 27.750 x 19.875 x 2.000 in. (70.485 x 50.483 x 5.08 cm.)
Materials
overall : canvas, paint, wood
Signature
right side
Inscription
Signed, dated 1945
Contributor
Artist:
George Byfield
Biography
Gyorgy Beamter (later George Beifeld, then Byfield) was born in Budapest, Hungary, on April 4, 1902, to Wilhelm and Hermine Hacker Beamter. His father was killed 1917 while serving in the army during World War I. Gyrogy attended university and was trained as a lawyer, but earned his living as a stockbroker in Budapest. He was also an accomplished artist. He was fluent in Hungarian, English, French, and German. Hungary was governed by a fascist regime, allied with Nazi Germany, with antisemitic racial laws modeled on the Nuremberg Laws. From 1939, Jewish men were forced into the Hungarian labor service. German invaded Poland in September 1939, the beginning of World War II.
The Hungarian labor service was put under army command in 1940. In spring 1941, Hungary participated in the German invasion of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union. On April 1, 1942, Gyorgy was conscripted into a forced labor battalion and sent to a camp in Pomac, Hungary. He was then sent to support Hungarian troops in combat on the eastern front, first at Oral and then Woroniez. During this time, he made a visual record of his experiences, creating over 400 drawings and watercolors. At the end of 1943, Gyorgy was sent back to Budapest. He found that the persecution of Jews had gotten much harsher. Once the Germans began to retreat from Russia in 1943, the Hungarian government sought peace with the western Allies. On March19, 1944, Germany occupied Hungary. Within weeks, they began the ghettoization and deportation of all the Jews in Hungary.
On May 12, 1944, Gyorgy was arrested and held in a camp in Velence v.Gardony camp near Budapest for six months. He was assigned prisoner number 27990, and classed as a Jewish and political inmate. On December 25, he was deported to Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany. He worked as a draughtsman. In January 1945, he was transferred to Offenburg. In April, he was sent on a death march to Dachau concentration camp. The camp was liberated by the United States 7th Army on April 29, 1945.
Gyorgy returned to Budapest, then in 1948, emigrated to Australia He changed his name and opened a tobacconist shop. He later ran a successful interior design studio. Byfield, age 80, died in Australia in 1982.
