This passport photo was taken in Brussels in October 1937 for the renewal of his Belgian alien’s passport. That same month, he married his long-time partner, the painter Felka Platek, there.

The New Objectivity painter, who was born in Osnabrück, never returned to Germany after his Rome scholarship was revoked in 1933. Following the invasion of Belgium by the German Wehrmacht in 1940 and their escape from an internment camp, the couple lived underground in Brussels for years. Despite the constant fear of discovery, Nussbaum created a harrowing body of late work while in hiding, documenting the terror of the Holocaust.

Following a denunciation, Felix Nussbaum and Felka Platek were arrested on June 20, 1944. They were transported to Auschwitz on the very last deportation train from Belgium. While Felka Platek was presumably murdered in August 1944, records show that Felix Nussbaum survived his first few weeks in the camp. Today, their legacy lives on at the Felix-Nussbaum-Haus in Osnabrück.

The Fate of Displaced Artists Far From Home

This theme of the month sheds light on the mechanisms of displacement and what the loss of one’s homeland means for art. After fleeing dictatorships or wars, creative expression in a foreign land often becomes a tool of inner resistance. Yet, the loss of a familiar audience and a lack of working materials present artists with existential hurdles. While a few succeed in adapting, many succumb to isolation or are caught by their persecutors. The works created in exile stand as timeless memorials to the fragility of freedom.

A bitter irony befell Jewish refugees after their escape: in sanctuary countries like Great Britain, they were suddenly classified as 'Enemy Aliens' upon the outbreak of World War II. Instead of freedom, internment behind barbed wire awaited them, paralyzing all artistic creation for months or years.