Satiric sketch of two skeletal doctors with a patient given to a Yugoslavian political prisoner
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 7.875 inches (20.003 cm) | Width: 10.625 inches (26.988 cm)
Creator(s)
- John J. Bolé (Subject)
Biographical History
Ivan (Johann) Bolé was born on February 9, 1916, in Prague, Czechoslovakia, to Catholic parents, Ivan and Danica Strekelj Bole. The family moved to Laibach, Yugoslavia (Ljubljana, Slovenia). Danica died on November 14, 1929, in Laibach. Ivan completed five years of university education. He received his diploma from the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Law, in January 1941 and became an attorney. He spoke Czech, Slovenian, German, Italian, French, and Serbo-Croatian. On April 6, 1941, the Axis powers, Germany, Italy, Hungary, and Bulgaria, invaded and divided Yugoslavia. Laibach was in the area occupied and annexed by Italy. Ivan went to Venice with the Slovenian Red Cross. On September 19, 1944, he was caught attempting to smuggle a radio transmitter across the border and was arrested by the German SS security force in Trieste. Ivan was sent to Buchenwald concentration camp, arriving on November 19. He was designated a political prisoner, assigned prisoner number 67186, and housed in Block 17. He was assigned to work commando A6 in Wanz-leben am See. Buchenwald was liberated on April 11, 1945, by American forces. The war ended when Germany surrendered on May 7. In June 1945, Ivan was repatriated from Mittenwald displaced person camp to a dp camp in Rome, Italy. In 1946, he was employed by the Allied Military Government as a school director in the Gorizia region of Italy, near the Slovenian border. In fall 1948, Ivan was living in Bagnoli dp camp near Naples, run by the IRO [International Refugee Organization.] On January 16, 1950, Ivan left for the United States, sailing from Bremerhaven, Germany, on the General JH McRae, arriving in New York on January 26. He became a naturalized American citizen in 1955 and changed his name to John. He went on to have a successful career in international banking. He married Martina, nee Kosuchowski, on May 4, 1957, and they had a son, Michael, and a daughter, Lorraine. John, age 61, died in January 1978 in New York.
Archival History
The drawing was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2011 by Lorraine DeMaio, the daughter of John Bole.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Lorraine DeMaio
Funding Note: The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Scope and Content
Caricature with two "doctors" and an anxious prisoner/patient given to 29 year old Ivan (Johann) Bole in Buchenwald concentration camp, where Ivan was held as a Yugoslavian political prisoner from November 1944 to April 1945. The artist was probably another inmate and it is signed N. Pinat, but nothing is known about him. Ivan, a Catholic, was a lawyer in Laibach, Yugoslavia (Ljubljana, Slovenia) when the Axis powers, led by Nazi Germany, invaded in April 1941. Laibach was annexed by Italy. Ivan went to Venice with the Slovenian Red Cross. In September 1944, he was arrested by the German SS for smuggling a radio transmitter into Trieste. In November, Ivan was sent to Buchenwald in Germany and assigned prisoner number 67186. He was assigned to work commando A6 in Wanz-leben am See. The camp was liberated on April 11, 1945, by US troops. Germany surrendered on May 7. Ivan lived as a displaced person in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, and emigrated to America in 1950.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
No restrictions on use
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Satiric sketch on light brown paper depicting 2 men with skulls for heads dressed in white surgical scrubs and caps, with the masks pulled down. The large, overweight "doctor" in the center smokes a cigar and, in his right hand, holds a butcher knife, dripping blood. To the left is a smaller doctor pointing with his left hand at the metal table in front of him and with his right at the third man in the room, who is sketched realistically. This man, the "patient", is barechested, thin and looks at the doctors with an anxious expression. The artist’s signature and date are at the top left. The paper is stained and discolored.
Subjects
- Political prisoners--Yugoslavia--Biography.
- Concentration camp inmates as artists--Pictorial works.
- World War, 1939-1945--Underground movements--Personal narratives.
- Yugoslavia--History--Axis occupation, 1941-1945--Biography.
- World War, 1939-1945--Prisoners and prisoners, German--Personal narratives.
- Political prisoners--Germany--Biography.
- Concentration camp inmates--Germany--Weimar--Biography.
Genre
- Object
- Art