Irene Awret
{{short description|German artist and writer}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Irene Awret
| image = Photo of Irene Awret.jpg
| caption = photo from passport issued to Irene Spicker in March 1939
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| birth_name = Irene Spicker
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1921|1|30|mf=y}}
| birth_place = Berlin, Germany
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2014|6|6|1921|1|30|mf=y}}
| death_place = Falls Church, Virginia
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| occupation = artist, writer
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| nationality = German American
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| spouse = Azriel Awret
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}}
Irene Awret or Irene Spicker (1921–2014) was a German artist, author and Holocaust survivor.
Biography
Awret née Spicker was born on January 30, 1921, in Berlin, Germany.{{cite web |title=EHRI – Awret-Spicker family. Collection |url=https://portal.ehri-project.eu/units/be-002157-kd_00356 |website=European Holocaust Research Infrastructure |accessdate=2 September 2020}}{{cite web |title=Passport issued to Irene Spicker in March 1939 stamped with the Nazi eagle and displaying the imposed middle name of "Sara". – Collections Search – United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |url=https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1157944 |website=U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum |accessdate=2 September 2020}} She was the youngest of three children. In 1937, as a result of the Nuremberg Laws, Irene left high school and began studying drawing and painting. Around 1939 she and a sister fled to Belgium, where she stayed for several years. She continued her studies and eventually was able to find work restoring wooden sculptures.{{cite web |title=Irène Awret |url=https://art.holocaust-education.net/explore.asp?langid=1&submenu=200&id=10 |website=Learning about the Holocaust Through Art |accessdate=2 September 2020 |archive-date=16 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220316112828/https://art.holocaust-education.net/explore.asp?langid=1&submenu=200&id=10 |url-status=dead }}
In 1943 Awret was detained by the Gestapo in occupied Belgium and subsequently sent to the Mechelen transit camp. She was assigned to the camp art workshop, where she produced signs and armbands. Awret was also required to paint portraits of Nazi officers.
While in the camp, she met Azriel Awret (1910–2011{{cite web |title=Azriel Awret |url=https://art.holocaust-education.net/explore.asp?langid=1&submenu=200&id=9 |website=Learning about the Holocaust through Art |accessdate=2 September 2020 |archive-date=23 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211123203616/https://art.holocaust-education.net/explore.asp?langid=1&submenu=200&id=9 |url-status=dead }}{{cite web |title=Irene Awret |url=https://www.washingtonjewishweek.com/13271/irene-awret/obits/ |website=Washington Jewish Week |accessdate=2 September 2020 |date=18 June 2014 }}{{Dead link|date=September 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }})), fellow artist and prisoner. The two married in late 1944 after the liberation of Mechelen.{{cite news |last1=Padget |first1=Jonathan |title=Portrait of a Holocaust Survivor |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2004/05/27/portrait-of-a-holocaust-survivor/80603108-a01a-4eaa-8b4d-4270522bab23/ |newspaper=Washington Post |accessdate=2 September 2020 |date=27 May 2004}}
The couple and their children emigrated to Safed, Israel, in 1949. There they founded an art colony.{{cite web |title=Longtime F.C. Resident Irene Awret Dies at Age 93 |url=https://fcnp.com/2014/06/11/longtime-f-c-resident-irene-awret-dies-at-age-93/ |website=Falls Church News-Press Online |accessdate=2 September 2020 |date=11 June 2014}} In the 1970s, the couple moved to the United States and settled in Falls Church, Virginia.
Awret's memoir, They'll Have to Catch Me First: An Artist's Coming of Age in the Third Reich ({{ISBN|0299188302}}) was published in 2004 by the University of Wisconsin Press.
Awret died in Falls Church on June 6, 2014.
Legacy
Awret's paintings are included in the collection of the Beit Lohamei Haghetaot (Ghetto Fighters' House Museum). More of the couple's art is located at the Kazerne Dossin: Memoriaal, Museum en Documentatiecentrum over Holocaust en Mensenrechten (Kazerne Dossin Memorial, Museum and Documentation Centre). Awret's 1939 passport is in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
A small selection of Irene Awret's watercolor paintings is installed in a [https://art.kunstmatrix.com/apps/artspaces/?external=true&uid=11439&exhibition=13395294 permanent virtual exhibition].
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.invaluable.com/artist/awret-irene-yda8j1b5ze/ Images of Awret's work] on Invaluable
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Category:20th-century German women artists
Category:20th-century German women writers
Category:German emigrants to Israel