The Refugee, Brussels, 1939

Oil on canvas

59.7x74.7 cm

Collection of the Yad Vashem Art Museum, Jerusalem

Felix Nussbaum was born in Osnabrueck, Germany, and studied in Hamburg, Berlin and Rome. He and his companion, Felka Platek, settled in Belgium in 1935. In 1940, he was arrested with all other aliens and sent to the camp of Saint Cyprien in southern France. Nussbaum managed to escape, and lived in hiding in Brussels until he was caught in 1944 and sent to Auschwitz, where he perished.