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(JTA) — That they had seen the photographs earlier than, within the collections of the museums that owned them till earlier this 12 months. However the heirs of Fritz Grünbaum, a Viennese cabaret performer killed within the Holocaust, stated the works had conveyed a strong impact now that that they had been restored to Grünbaum’s property.
“When viewing these artworks, think about Fritz and Elisabeth of their energetic Vienna residence, singing, dancing, cracking jokes,” Timothy Reif, a distant relative, stated in his remarks throughout a somber ceremony in downtown Manhattan Wednesday afternoon. He was referring to Grünbaum’s spouse, who’s presumed to have been killed by the Nazis in 1942. “Remembering their lives defeats Hitler’s plan to erase this courageous Jewish man’s identify from the ebook of historical past.”
Reif and different heirs and co-executors had been referred to as to the ceremony to obtain seven items by the Twentieth-century Austrian expressionist Egon Schiele that had been a part of Grünbaum’s huge artwork assortment. They had been seized earlier this 12 months from plenty of prestigious museums and collections by the workplace of Manhattan District Legal professional Alvin Bragg, as a part of an effort to repatriate artwork stolen by the Nazis.
“On behalf of my whole household, I provide our deep gratitude to every of you right here right this moment, for all you might be doing and have carried out for the reason for justice,” Reif stated.
Grünbaum was killed within the Dachau focus camp in 1941, and the importance of the ceremony’s timing, throughout the Days of Repentance between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, was obvious to the attendees.
“It’s not misplaced on me the place we’re on the calendar that our ceremony coincides with the Jewish Excessive Holidays, the time of reflection,” Bragg stated to a room of about 100 attendees Wednesday afternoon. “This ceremony has jogged my memory that regardless of the horrors of the tragic destruction brought on by the Nazis, it’s by no means too late to show the world about unbelievable individuals like Mr. Grünbaum.”
Onlookers view works by Egon Schiele from Fritz Grünbaum’s in depth non-public assortment, now returned to his heirs in a ceremony in New York on Sep. 20, 2023. (Jackie Hajdenberg)
David Frankel, one of many co-executors of Grünbaum’s property, informed the Jewish Telegraphic Company that the timing “heightens the sense of awe surrounding all of this and the emotional funding that the DA’s workplace and assistant DA [Matthew] Bogdanos has put into this.”
On Thursday, Grünbaum’s heirs will give the works to Christie’s, which can public sale them for charity later this 12 months. The earnings are set to go to artists in underserved communities, much like a earlier public sale of restituted artworks that Grünbaum’s property organized within the fall of 2022.
Grünbaum was stated to be the inspiration for the grasp of ceremonies character within the Broadway musical and subsequent movie “Cabaret.” Along with his work as a comic, librettist, movie and radio star, Grünbaum was additionally recognized for his political exercise and outspoken opposition to antisemitism. In 1910, he famously slapped an Austrian officer after the officer made antisemitic remarks, after which was challenged to a duel wherein he was injured. He later turned a vocal critic of the Nazis in a Viennese every day newspaper.
“They need to bear in mind him as not solely as a fantastic artist, but in addition an anti-Nazi,” Frankel stated. “Somebody who stands up for human rights and was brave sufficient to danger his life to do it.”
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