Painting by Josef Nassy

Object | Accession Number: 1991.245.175 a-b

Overview

Artwork Title: Laufen
Date: creation: 1944
Credit Line: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Severin Wunderman Family
Signature: lower left, "Nassy"
Contributor: Artist: Josef Nassy
Subject: Josef Nassy
Biography: Josef Nassy was born in 1904 in Paramaribo, Suriname (the Dutch Guiana.) He was the seventh of nine children. His father Adolf was a prosperous businessman and member of Parliament. He was a descendant of Jews who fled Spain during the Inquisition, and spoke Yiddish, but was not religious. Josef was also of African descent. In 1919, Josef joined his father, in New York. He had taken art classes since a child, and now attended the Pratt Institute. He received a degree in industrial electrical engineering and worked in London and Paris installing movie theatre sound systems. In 1938, he attended the Academie des Beaux Arts in Brussels, Belgium, to study painting. Nassy was earning a living as a portrait artist when World War II began. In May 1940, Nazi Germany invaded and occupied Belgium. Josef was arrested in April 1942 as an enemy national, as he had an American passport. Nassy was held in Beverloo transit camp in Leopoldsburg, Belgium, before being transferred to Laufen internment camp and its subcamp Tittmoning. While imprisoned, Nassy was supplied with art materials by the International YMCA. He created more than 200 paintings and drawings chronicling the people and the appearance of the camp, with works featuring the barbed wire, watch towers, and prison bars. The United States Army liberated Laufen internment camp on May 5, 1945. Nassy passed away in 1976.

Physical Details

Classification: Art
Category: Paintings
Object Type: Painting (lcsh)
Physical Description: a= image of man wearing spectacles and playing a harmonica; b= framed in 2" gilt mould
Dimensions: overall: Height: 14.720 inches (37.389 cm) | Width: 12.990 inches (32.995 cm)
Materials: overall : wood, oil paint

Rights & Restrictions

Conditions on Access: There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
Conditions on Use: Material(s) in this collection may be protected by copyright and/or related rights. You do not require further permission from the Museum to use this material. The user is solely responsible for making a determination as to if and how the material may be used.

Keywords & Subjects

Topical Term: Concentration camps--Germany--Pictorial works. Concentration camp inmates as artists--Germany--Biography. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in art--Pictorial works. Prisoners of war in art--Germany--Pictorial works. World War, 1939-1945--Art and the war--Pictorial works. World War, 1939-1945--Concentration camps--Pictorial works.
Personal Name: Nassy, Joseph Johan Cosmo, 1904-1976.
Corporate Name: Ilag VII (Concentration camp)

Administrative Notes

Legal Status: Permanent Collection
Provenance: The painting was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1991 by the Severin Wunderman Family.

Record last modified:: 2023-06-06 09:24:41
This page:: http://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn5441

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Black crayon and pencil drawing of a man seated on a chair with his arms folded across his chest

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Portrait drawing of Johnny Mitchell playing guitar by Josef Nassy

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Portrait of Johnny Mitchell playing guitar, drawn by professionally trained artist Josef Nassy, a black expatriate of Jewish descent. Josef was one of about 2,000 civilians holding American passports who were confined in German internment camps during World War II (1939-1945). From 1929-1934, he was employed in the installation of sound systems in Europe for a film company. Before leaving, Josef had obtained an American passport under the name Josef Nassy, he thought it would be safer to hold an American passport while in Europe. Though he’d been born in Suriname (formerly Dutch Guiana), he apparently claimed that he was born in San Francisco in 1899. He was able to do this because San Francisco's public records had been destroyed in the earthquake of 1906, and authorities issued the passport without any investigation. In 1938, he attended the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels, Belgium, to study painting. German forces occupied Belgium in May 1940, but Josef and his Belgian wife did not leave. Four months after the US entered the war in December 1941, Josef was arrested as an enemy alien in German-occupied Belgium because he held an American passport. He was held in the Beverloo transit camp in Leopoldsburg for seven months. He was then deported to Laufen internment camp and its subcamp, Tittmoning in Germany. Throughout his three-year imprisonment, Josef created a unique visual diary of more than 200 paintings and drawings. Many of these works chronicle people and daily life in the internment camps. The US Third Army liberated Laufen on May 5, 1945. Josef and nearly all the internees at the camps survived the war. A year after liberation, Josef was repatriated to Belgium. He eventually returned to the United States, and continued to create works of art.

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Painting by Josef Nassy

Overview

Physical Details

Rights & Restrictions

Keywords & Subjects

Administrative Notes

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