Self-Portrait of Heinz Geiringer Sitting with his Head in his Arms
To Use This Document
With Your Students
Date
1942-1944
Description
Self-portrait of a boy in despair sitting with his head in his arms. It was painted by Heinz Geiringer, a Jewish teenager in hiding in Amsterdam. Geiringer passed his days by painting, writing poetry, learning languages, and playing music. In 1944, the Geiringers were betrayed and captured by the Nazis, leading to Heinz and his father Erich dying at Mauthausen in spring 1945. His mother Elfriede (Fritzi) and his sister Eva survived their imprisonment at Auschwitz-Birkenau. After the war, the women returned to Amsterdam where Fritzi would go on to reconnect with, and eventually marry, their former neighbor Otto Frank (posthumously making Heinz the step brother of Anne Frank), and Eva would retrieve the paintings that Heinz stashed under the floorboards of his hiding place. Today, Eva Schloss-Geiringer continues to educate about the Holocaust and share the artwork of her brother, which stands as a testament to Jewish humanity and cultural resistance in the face of Nazi brutality.
Type
Image
Region
Global
Era
The Great Depression and WW II
Topic
Dutch, Genocide, Jewish History, World War II
Repository
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Identifier
55015
Source
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Eva Schloss
Rights
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