MARY BURKETT ART

If we traveled back in time to May 8, 1940, we would find The Netherlands a peaceful, orderly place with a bustling Amsterdam at the heart of Dutch life. Queen Wilhelmina sat on the throne as head of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy similar to the English government we know today. Two days later, on May 10, the German Nazis invaded. Interestingly they considered the Dutch a “Germanic brother nation” and therefore handled the invasion entirely differently than they had

Human experience is sometimes a strange thing. Take for example the life of Franz Kafka, a young man universally recognized today as a giant of 20th century literature. He lived a short life, dying from tuberculosis at the age of 40, and during that short life, he suffered from a great lack of confidence in his writing abilities. Kafka’s best known work is Metamorphosis , the story of Gregor Samsa who wakes one morning to find himself transformed into a giant insect. He is re

It was an ordinary day in the spring of 1942 – a day that would change her life forever. Marion Binsbergen was a 21-year-old social work student, riding her bike to class in Amsterdam. On the street ahead of her, babies and young children were being removed from an orphanage, literally being picked up by an arm or leg or even their hair and thrown into the back of a truck by Nazi soldiers. Marion stopped, transfixed, realizing that she was a “bystander,” one of those watching

In 1942, Belgium was experiencing its second year of brutal occupation by the Nazis. Jeanne Daman was a teacher in Brussels and a Catholic, who had never met a Jewish person in her young life. She was surrounded, however, by the example of nuns in convents across Belgium who were actively hiding as many Jewish children as possible. When Jewish children were no longer allowed to attend public kindergartens, Jeanne accepted a position as head mistress of Nos Petits, a private s

On 28 October 1940 during the afternoon roll-call one prisoner was found missing. A penal roll-call was ordered at noon. Prisoners had to stand "at attention" in their uniforms but without coats, sweaters, hats or shoes. It was sleeting during the whole day. The roll-call was called off around 9 pm after the missing prisoner was found. He had tried to hide from the rain and died in his hiding place in the camp. After the roll-call over 120 dead, unconscious or sick prisoners

"There are people whose brilliance continues to light the world even though they are no longer among the living. These lights are particularly bright when the night is dark. They light the way for humankind." H. Szenes 1939 was a pivotal year for Hannah Szenes. She was a young Hungarian woman, only 18 years old and already an accomplished poet. Life, however, was becoming increasingly dangerous for Jews in her beloved Budapest. Laws were passed which limited Jewish participat

The story of Wladyslaw Szpillman is widely known to many of us. He was one of only 20 Jews still alive in Warsaw when he was discovered by a German officer in November of 1944. Szpillman, a well-known composer, was living in a bombed-out building, almost frozen and starving to death. The German officer provided food and supplies, and most importantly, safety. Wladyslaw Szpillman survived the war and composed and performed until his death in 2000, and his miraculous story of s

She was on the cover of Vogue at age 19 – one of the world's most beautiful and glamorous women. The camera loved her, as did the world of high fashion. But Lee Miller was a restless soul, full of energy and talent. She moved behind the camera and began to experiment with surrealistic photography. In 1932, she established her own studio in New York and spent her time both there and in London producing amazing photographs. When WWll began, her friends and family pleaded with h

Not long ago I had the marvelous opportunity to see the Chagall windows in the Fraumunster, a famous church in Zurich. They are an explosion of color and light and imagery that truly defies description. If you ever get the chance, don’t miss it! Not surprisingly the Nazis had strong feelings about what they considered "degenerative" art, and high on their list of offenders was Marc Chagall. So I thought we might make a quick visit to his world, circa 1940. Marc Chagall was al

It’s difficult for us to imagine the Europe that existed in 1939. The Spanish civil war had begun in 1936 and on January 26, 1939, Franco’s troops took Barcelona. In the three weeks that followed 475,000 people fled across the border into France! All these people had to be housed somewhere, so dozens of camps and former military bases became internment camps. One of these was Camp Joffre in Rivesaltes. The camp could hold 8,000, but was quickly overflowing. You may note that

Once upon a time in Iran… It was over 100 degrees that August day in 1942 when the first of what would eventually be 1,000 kids arrived in Tehran. They were Jewish kids, mostly Polish, escaping Nazi persecution and hopefully on their way to a new and peaceful life. What they found on arrival was paradise: mown lawns, colorful flowerbeds, shops full of everything one could want, even chocolate! There were no bombed out buildings, no bread lines, no persecution. In fact, just t

It was a time in Hungary when children worked as servants for wealthy families. Such was the case for 13-year-old Erzsebet (Elizabeth), who began working as a caretaker for Zsuzsanna and Ivan Abonyi in 1931. She could never have imagined how the next 13 years of her young life would unfold. The year of 1944 found Erzsebet and the Abonyis in Budapest as the Nazis invaded their homeland. Being Jewish, the family members were required to wear the yellow star and their house was