16 Facts About Felix Nussbaum

Felix Nussbaum was a German-Jewish surrealist painter.

Felix Nussbaum's work is usually associated with the New Objectivity movement, and was influenced by the works of Giorgio de Chirico, Henri Rousseau, and Vincent van Gogh.

Felix Nussbaum took refuge in Belgium after the Nazi rise to power, but was deported to Auschwitz along with his wife Felka Platek only a few months before the British liberation of Brussels on 3 September 1944.

Felix Nussbaum was born in Osnabruck, Germany, to parents Rahel and Philipp Felix Nussbaum.

Felix Nussbaum's father was a World War I veteran and German patriot before the rise of the Nazis.

Felix Nussbaum was an amateur painter in his youth, but financial difficulties forced him to pursue more traditional work.

Felix Nussbaum was a lifelong student, beginning his formal studies in 1920 in Hamburg and Berlin, and continuing as long as the tempestuous political situation allowed him.

In 1933, Felix Nussbaum was studying under a scholarship in Rome at the Berlin Academy of the Arts when the Nazis seized control of Germany.

The next decade of Felix Nussbaum's life was characterized by fear, which is reflected in his artwork.

Felix Nussbaum eventually signed a request to the French camp authorities to be returned to Germany.

In 1955, Felix Nussbaum was declared legally dead with 9 August 1944 selected as his date of death.

In 2014, researchers at the Russian state archives in Moscow identified a report from the Auschwitz infirmary dated 20 September 1944 that showed Felix Nussbaum was treated for a blister on his left index finger.

Felix Nussbaum was not among the prisoners present on 27 January 1945 during the liberation of Auschwitz, and there are no known records of transfer to a separate concentration camp, leading researchers to conclude Felix Nussbaum was murdered between 20 September 1944 and 27 January 1945.

Felix Nussbaum's artwork reflects and interprets his experiences as a victim of the Holocaust.

Felix Nussbaum was featured alongside fellow concentration camp survivors and artists Jan Komski and Dinah Gottliebova in the 1999 documentary film Eyewitness, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject.

Art and Remembrance: The Legacy of Felix Nussbaum is a 1993 documentary directed by Barbara Pfeffer.