Holocaust Museum Houston Digital Newsletter November 2015

UPCOMING

German command. He volunteered and was sent to the sub-camp Gleiwitz I to compete with virtuosos from the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, but he was not chosen, putting him in great danger. To save himself, he painted a mural across the barracks walls, impressing the SS officers and saving his life. After liberation, he returned to Prague and produced his first cycle of Holocaust art. He remarried and fled communist Czechoslovakia to Israel, finally immigrating to the United States. Friedmann continued to depict the horrors of the Holocaust in his powerful series “Because They Were Jews!” He died in 1980 in St. Louis at the age of 86. Friedmann is recognized internationally, and his art is displayed in the permanent exhibition at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, among other institutions and museums. Museum members are invited to a free preview reception from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Feb. 4, 2016. To renew a membership or to join and attend, visit www.hmh.org, e-mail membership@hmh.org or call 713- 527-1640. Friedmann’s works illustrate the inherent value and promise of one artist who produced before, during and after events leading up to and including WWII. Few exhibitions focus on the rich, productive lives many artists had before the Holocaust. Portraits on display include Szymon Goldberg, a violinist and concertmaster of the BPO, the composer Arnold Schoenberg, cellist Gregor Piatigorsky and conductor, pianist George Szell. Goldberg was a concertmaster for the BPO. Later, he was a conductor for various orchestras. Friedmann’s oeuvre of 2,000 works was looted by the Gestapo in Berlin and by the Nazi authorities in Prague. Photo: Szymon (Simon) Goldberg, 1924 (1909- 1993, violinist). Portrait by David Friedmann.

“Giving Music a Face” ON VIEW FEB. 5, 2016 THROUGH JULY 31, 2016 CENTRAL GALLERY With the exhibition “Giving Music a Face,” Holocaust Museum Houston will feature more than 25 of Berlin artist and Holocaust Survivor David Friedmann’s “lost- musician” portraits from the 1920s. As a leading press artist in the 1920s, Friedmann sketched hundreds of celebrated personalities from the arts, music, theater, sports, politics and industry. He was also a violinist and had a connection with the well-known musicians of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (BPO), many of whom were Jewish. With the Nazi rise to power in 1933, many of these careers came to a tragic end. Some musicians fled, others were deported to concentration camps and murdered. Friedmann fled to Prague, only to be deported to the Lodz Ghetto, where his wife and daughter perished. He was then deported to Auschwitz but survived because of the lucky coincidence of the violin. In September, 1944, while in line at roll call, an announcement was made for the need of musicians for the orchestra of the

“On Our Watch: ISIS and the Yazidi of Northern Iraq” WEDNESDAY, DEC. 2, 2015 6:30 P.M. TO 8:00 P.M. ALBERT AND ETHEL HERZSTEIN THEATER Since the rise of the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) in August 2014, the Yazidi community has been in the midst of a human rights crisis. Members of the Houston Yazidi community will join Holocaust Museum Houston staff to provide a brief history of the Yazidi religion and culture and a panel discussion about the current perilous situation of the community. ISIS is said to have killed more than 6,000 Yazidi men, women and children and kidnapped an additional 6,000 members of the community, mostly women and female children. The Yazidi population of Northern Iraq is now displaced to refugee camps, and they are suffering from lack of food, water, bad weather, mental and physical health conditions, as well as a lack of education facilities. Admission is free, but advance registration is requested. To RSVP online, visit www.hmh.org/RegisterEvent.aspx.

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