Felix Nussbaum

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Felix Nussbaum (December 11, 1904, Osnabrück, Germany – 1944, Auschwitz concentration camp, Poland) was a German-Jewish painter. The son of Philip and Rachel Nussbaum, he studied painting in Hamburg, Berlin, and Rome.

Nussbaum was staying in Rome on a scholarship when the Nazis seized power in Germany in 1933. He did not return but lived in exile in Italy, France, and Belgium with Felka Platek, a Polish painter who would become his wife. In 1937, they established themselves in Brussels and married.

When Belgium was occupied by Germany in 1940, Nussbaum was arrested by the Nazis and deported to the Saint Cyprien detention camp in France. He managed to escape and returned to Brussels in 1942, where he went into hiding with his wife.

The Nussbaums were betrayed and arrested on June 20, 1944. They were deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where they perished. They were among the last people to be deported from Belgium, which was liberated on September 6, 1944.

In 1998, the Felix Nussbaum House in Osnabrück opened its doors, where his works are exhibited.