Czech-American painter
Dina Babbitt
|
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Dina Babbitt with a copy of one of the portraits she painted in Auschwitz
|
Born
| Annemarie Dina Gottliebova
(
1923-01-21
)
January 21, 1923
|
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Died
| July 29, 2009
(2009-07-29)
(aged 86)
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Occupation
| Artist
|
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Spouse
|
(
m.
1949;
div.
1963)
|
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Children
| 2
|
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Annemarie Dina Babbitt
(nee
Gottliebova
; January 21, 1923 ? July 29, 2009) was an artist and
Holocaust
survivor
. A naturalized U.S. citizen, she resided in
Santa Cruz, California
.
[1]
As Dina Gottliebova, she was imprisoned at
Auschwitz concentration camp
during
World War II
, where she drew portraits of
Romani
inmates for the infamous
Josef Mengele
. Following the liberation of the camp and the end of the war, she emigrated to the
United States
and became an animator. At the time of her death, she had been fighting the
Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
for the return of her paintings.
She was featured alongside fellow concentration camp survivors and artists
Jan Komski
and
Felix Nussbaum
in the 1999 documentary film
Eyewitness
, which was nominated for an
Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject
.
[2]
[3]
Early life and war
[
edit
]
Annemarie Dina Gottliebova was born in
Brno
,
Czechoslovakia
(today the Czech Republic), to a Jewish family. In 1939, when the Germans invaded her homeland, she was living in Prague, where she had gone to study at the Academy of Fine Arts. In 1942, she and her mother, Johanna Gottlieb, were arrested and sent to the
Theresienstadt concentration camp
, outside Prague. The following year, they were transferred to
Auschwitz
.
[4]
Auschwitz paintings
[
edit
]
In 1944, while in Auschwitz, the 21-year-old Gottliebova was chosen by Mengele to draw portraits of Romani inmates.
[5]
Mengele wished to capture the Romanis' skin coloration better than he could with camera and film at that time. Gottliebova agreed, on the condition that her mother's life be spared as well.
[6]
As of 2009, seven
watercolors
survive, all in the
Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
.
[7]
According to the museum's website, seven of her portraits of Romani inmates were discovered after World War II outside the Auschwitz camp in the early 1970s and sold to the museum by people who apparently did not know that Gottliebova was still alive and living in
California
as Dina Babbitt. The museum asked Babbitt to return to the Auschwitz site in 1973 to identify her work. After she did so, she was informed that the museum would not allow her to take her paintings home. Gottliebova-Babbitt formally requested the return of her paintings,
[8]
but the museum rejected her claims.
[9]
The U.S. government became involved with
House
and
Senate
resolutions. The House version was authored by Representative
Shelley Berkley
. The Senate version was co-authored by Senator
Barbara Boxer
and former Senator
Jesse Helms
. Both became part of the Congressional Record in 2003 and passed unanimously.
[10]
In collaboration with
Rafael Medoff
, director of the
David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies
,
Neal Adams
of the
comic-book
industry championed Babbitt's efforts.
[11]
Using text from Medoff, Adams illustrated a six-page graphic documentary about Babbitt that was inked by
Joe Kubert
and contains an introduction by
Stan Lee
.
[12]
Adams called the Babbitt situation "tragic" and "an atrocity".
[11]
In 2008, Adams, the Wyman Institute and Vanguard Publications publisher
J. David Spurlock
spearheaded a petition campaign in which over 450 comic book creators and cartoonists urged the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum to return Babbitt's seven portraits.
[13]
A reprint of the graphic documentary and an account of Babbitt's plight were included in the final issue of the comic
X-Men: Magneto Testament
.
[14]
A group of students from
Palo Alto High School
, led by teacher David Rapaport, worked to help Babbitt by communicating with officials from the State Department to have the paintings returned, and by writing to individuals in the government. They have written a book about this experience.
[15]
In 2011, Lidia Ostałowska, a Polish writer and journalist, wrote a reportage about life of Dina Babbitt (
Watercolors: A Story from Auschwitz
) including the story of paintings, description of the
Romani people
and
Sinti
extermination, discussion of rights of the Romani people and Sinti to these paintings, and also the influence of the above mentioned action of American artists on the aggressive letters and emails addressed to the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum (ca 1,500 aggressive letters a year).
[16]
The reportage has been translated into English in 2016 and published in the New Delhi, India.
[17]
Personal life
[
edit
]
She was the second wife of animator
Art Babbitt
(creator of
Goofy
).
[18]
The couple had two daughters, Michele Kane and Karin Babbitt, and three grandchildren, all of whom have been active in pursuing Gottliebova-Babbitt's claims.
[
citation needed
]
They divorced in 1963.
Dina Gottliebova-Babbitt was diagnosed with an aggressive form of
abdominal cancer
and had surgery on July 23, 2008. She died one year later, on July 29, 2009, aged 86, in
Felton, California
.
[19]
[20]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Press Release
Archived
2006-11-30 at the
Wayback Machine
of US Congresswoman
Shelley Berkley
- ^
"NY Times: Eyewitness"
. Movies & TV Dept.
The New York Times
. 2012. Archived from
the original
on October 16, 2012
. Retrieved
December 6,
2008
.
- ^
"Eyewitness"
. Seventh Art Releasing
. Retrieved
March 7,
2012
.
- ^
1923: Czech Woman Who Drew Fellow Auschwitz Inmates Is Born
, haaretz.com; accessed April 27, 2017
- ^
NPR report
, npr.org; accessed August 9, 2016.
- ^
Friess, Steve (2006-08-30).
"History Claims Her Artwork, but She Wants It Back"
.
The New York Times
.
ISSN
0362-4331
. Retrieved
2019-03-04
.
- ^
"A survivor's artwork, but whose to claim?"
, iht.com, August 30, 2006.
- ^
Senate resolution in re Gottliebova-Babbitt
,
House resolution in re Gottliebova-Babbitt
Text of the Senate and House resolutions.
- ^
Auschwitz-Birkenau museum's position on issue of portraits made by Dinah Gottliebova-Babbitt
Archived
2011-05-22 at the
Wayback Machine
, auschwitz.org.pl; accessed August 9, 2016.
- ^
Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Year 2003
. DIANE Publishing. 2002.
ISBN
9781428960893
.
- ^
a
b
Gustines, George Gene (August 8, 2008).
"Comic-Book Idols Rally to Aid a Holocaust Artist"
.
New York Times
. Retrieved
August 9,
2016
.
- ^
Rafael Medoff; Neal Adams; Joe Kubert & Stan Lee.
"Story of Dina Gottliebova-Babbitt"
(PDF)
. Comics for a Cause
. Retrieved
August 9,
2016
.
- ^
Open Letter from Neal Adams & J. David Spurlock for Holocaust Survivor
Archived
2013-12-05 at the
Wayback Machine
, ComicsBulletin.com, September 24, 2008.
- ^
"X-Men: Magneto Testament #5"
. Retrieved
August 9,
2016
.
- ^
"JusticeForDina.com"
. Archived from
the original
on 2011-01-24
. Retrieved
2017-11-30
.
- ^
Ostałowska, Lidia. (2011).
Farby wodne
(Wyd. 1 ed.). Wołowiec: Wydawn. Czarne.
ISBN
978-83-7536-286-2
.
OCLC
775345529
.
- ^
Ostałowska, Lidia (2016).
Watercolours : a story from Auschwitz
. Bye, Sean Gasper. [New Delhi, India].
ISBN
978-93-85932-03-8
.
OCLC
988581327
.
{{
cite book
}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link
)
- ^
Art Babbitt profile
Archived
2007-01-03 at the
Wayback Machine
, CartoonBrew.com, August 2006.
- ^
Dina Babbitt profile
, Telegraph.co.uk; accessed August 9, 2016.
- ^
Bruce Weber,
"Dina Babbitt, Artist at Auschwitz, Is Dead at 86"
, nytimes.com, August 1, 2009; accessed August 9, 2016.
External links
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edit
]
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International
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National
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Artists
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