Autobiographical painting depicting a young girl and her parents as refugees in flight painted postwar by a Croatian Jewish woman

Identifier
irn78323
Language of Description
English
Alt. Identifiers
  • 2012.470.2
  • 2017.434
Dates
1 Jan 1977 - 31 Dec 1977
Level of Description
Item
Source
EHRI Partner

Extent and Medium

overall: Height: 11.875 inches (30.163 cm) | Width: 19.500 inches (49.53 cm) | Depth: 0.125 inches (0.318 cm)

Creator(s)

Biographical History

Dina Pollak was born on January 11, 1938, in Zagreb, Yugoslavia [Croatia], to Otto and Rifka Musafia Pollak. Otto was born on January 21, 1899, in Zagreb, to Samuel and Johanna Schneid Pollak. Rifka was born on December 1, 1906, in Bijeljina, Yugoslavia, to Meir and Sara Elazar Musafia. Rifka had eight siblings: Blanka, Isak, Rachela, Johanna, Solci, Efraim, Menashem, and Salamon. Otto was a lawyer and an active Zionist. Rifka was a language teacher and seamstress. The family was Jewish and lived in Zagreb. On April 6, 1941, the Axis powers, Germany, Italy, Hungary, and Bulgaria invaded Yugoslavia and divided it amongst themselves. The Pollak and Musafia families lived in the newly created Independent State of Croatia, controlled by the Ustasa government, which enacted policies to persecute Jews and terrorized the country with the mass slaughter and expulsion of the Serbs. On April 28, 1941, Otto was arrested in Zagreb by the Ustasa police and sent to Kerestinec concentration camp. In June 1941, he was sent back to Zagreb and confined there. Rifka and Dina were in Split at the time. The Ustasa regime issued a travel permit for Rifka and her child, valid for travel from Split to Zagreb from July 4, 1941 to August 4, 1941. In October, Otto, Rifka, and Dina fled Zagreb for Italian occupied Ljubljana, Yugoslavia [Slovenia]. They lived in hiding from October until December 1941, when they escaped to Italy. From January 1942 until September 1943, they lived as confined refugees in Valdobiaddene, Treviso Province. In July 1943, the Allies landed in Sicily and Mussolini was deposed. On September 3, the Italian government reached an armistice with the Allies. The Pollak family obtained false papers and made their way to southern Italy as Ottone, Ria, and Dina Pollan, hiding from the occupying German troops. The region they were living in liberated in July 1944, as Allied forces advanced north of Rome. After liberation, they lived in Bari, Italy, in the Santa Croce displaced persons camp. On April 11, 1950, the family boarded the US Navy ship General J H McRae in Bremerhaven, Germany. They arrived in New York on April 24, 1950, and settled in New York City. They learned that Rifka’s mother and siblings were all killed during the war. Rachela and her husband Salamon Alkalaj were deported from Bijeljina and killed in 1941. Their son, Mosho, was shot in Bijeljina for fighting Nazis. Sara and Johanna were sent to Djakovo concentration camp, where Sara was killed and Johanna died of typhus in 1942. Johanna’s husband, Menachem Albahari, had been killed in Jadovno concentration camp in 1941. Solci was deported from Brno, in German occupied Czechoslovakia and killed in Treblinka. Solci's husband Hugo Pollak was killed in Brno. Rifka’s remaining siblings and their families were all deported and killed. Rifka and Otto became naturalized American citizens on June 13, 1955, and Dina did also on February 27, 1956, shortly after her eighteenth birthday. Dina became an artist and married Andre Gabos. Otto, age 83, died on January 22, 1982. Rifka, age 87, died on August 11, 1994.

Archival History

The painting was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2012 by Dina Pollak Gabos.

Acquisition

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Dina Pollak Gabos

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

Grayscale painting created by Dina Pollak Gabos in 1977, commemorating her family’s escape from Yugoslavia to Italy in December 1941. The Axis powers invaded Yugoslavia on April 6, 1941. Dina, age three, and her parents Otto and Rifka lived in Zagreb, which became part of Croatia and was ruled by the fascist anti-Semitic Ustasa regime. On April 28, Otto was sent by the Ustasa police to Kerestinec concentration camp, but was released in June. In October, the family fled to Italian controlled Ljubljana. They lived in hiding until they escaped to Italy in December 1941. The family lived as confined refugees in Valdobiadenne, Italy, from January 1942 until September 1943, when Italy was occupied by Germany after the Italians surrendered to the Allies. The Pollak family acquired false papers and fled to southern Italy. They were freed in July 1944, then lived in Santa Croce displaced persons camp in Bari. Rifka’s mother, eight siblings, and their families were all murdered in Croatia during the war. In 1950, Dina and her parents emigrated to New York.

Conditions Governing Access

No restrictions on access

Conditions Governing Reproduction

No restrictions on use

Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements

Acrylic painting in a naive style and grayscale tones on canvas board depicting a young girl and her parents standing on a gray path in the middle of a flat featureless landscape with a gray sky. The 3 figures are painted flat, without perspective, and have similar features: dark eyes, pale faces with neutral expressions, and arms held stiffly at their sides. A young girl with straight black hair stands on the path to the left, apart from her parents but angled toward them. Her parents stand next to each other in the center of the path, with the father angled left towards his wife. The mother has short brown hair and light red lips. The father has gray hair and black glasses. All are clothed in black, gray, and brown outfits with hats and coats. The figures stand upon a panel of three paths, light gray flanked by brownish gray, meant to appear as if they are extending endlessly into the distance. The artist's signature and date are inscribed on the back. The manufacturer name and logo are printed on the back.

Subjects

Genre

This description is derived directly from structured data provided to EHRI by a partner institution. This collection holding institution considers this description as an accurate reflection of the archival holdings to which it refers at the moment of data transfer.