Sunday, December 3, 2006

Auschwitz "Gypsy" Paintings

From All Things Considered comes this fascinating piece (11/30/2006 - 7:38) on a series of watercolor portraits of Gypsies, now known as Roma people, that a young Dina Gottliebova Babbitt painted in 1944, in the German concentration camp, Auschwitz.

Musings
  • One fascinating part of this story is legalistic--namely, who is the question of rightful owner of the portraits? While it is hard to resist the claim that the Auschwitz Museum should return the paintings, the Museum's position is not without some merit.

  • Another, equally fascinating issue involves the status of Gypsies, or Roma people, during the Holocaust, a topic touched upon in this Wikipedia piece on Auschwitz.