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Gheorghe Ceglokoff was born on April 15, 1904, in Chisinau, Russia (Chisinau, Moldova), to a Russian couple. Following the October Revolution in 1917, the region of Bessarabia, where Chisinau was located, declared independence from the Russian Empire and joined the Kingdom of Romania. Gheorghe attended the School of Arts in Chisinau. In 1928, he graduated from the Academy of Painting in Dresden, Germany, and returned to Romania. He drew and sketched pieces of miners and other laborers in Bessarabia and the Banat region of western Romania. His association with the laborers contributed to his active involvement in the growing Bessarabian communist movement. In 1933, Gheorghe’s art was included in exhibitions assembled by the Society of Fine Arts in Bessarabia. While in Chisinau, Gheorghe met and married Tatiana (Tania) Baillayre, a young aspiring artist and the daughter of his former teacher. Tania (1916-1991) was born in Petrograd (St. Petersburg), Russia, to painters Auguste Baillayre and Lidia Arionescu-Baillayre. Tania attended the Academy of Fine Arts and the couple later studied at the Sorbonne in Paris. In the mid-1930s, Gheorghe and Tania move to Bucharest, Romania, where he worked as an illustrator and was a political activist. Tania attended the Academy of Fine Arts. In September 1939, Germany invaded Poland, beginning World War II. Poland was divided with the Soviet Union per the German-Soviet Pact. In June 1940, the Soviet Union annexed the Romanian regions of Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina, and Hertza. In August, Romania was forced by Germany to cede northern Transylvania to Hungary and, in September, southern regions to Bulgaria. In September 1940, the King abdicated and General Antonescu and the anti-semitic, fascist Iron Guard took power and soon joined the Axis Alliance. On June 22, 1941, Gheorghe was arrested for his communist activism and transported to Targu-Jiu (Tirgu-Jiu) concentration camp in western Romania. On September 2, he was released from the camp and went to the Banat region, where Tania was staying with a community of artists. The couple stayed in Banat until after the war ended in May 1945. Gheorghe exhibited widely and received numerous awards. He was known for his expressive technique which blurred details to soften the emotional impact of the images. In the early 1950’s, Tania divorced Gheorghe, and he returned to Bucharest, where he worked as an engraver or illustrator. Gheorghe, age 60, died on May 7, 1964, in Bucharest.

The print reproduction was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2013 by Douglas Smith.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Douglas Smith, In memory of Mrs. Kazimiera Goslawska and her husband Mr. Ezra Miller

Funding Note: The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.