UTW 46

Herschl Grynspan with horned wings, Xmas cactus and horribilus Judenfisches appparitionus

Art: 2001
Media: Black India ink, colored inks, gouache, colored pencil on etching paper
Framed, 31 inches H x 37 W

The portrait was drawn from a black & white photo. It is believed Grynspan was murdered in a concentration-death camp in 1942.

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Grynspan's parents were Polish Jewish who emigrated to Germany in 1911. Born in Hanover, Germany in 1921, the Wikipedia info page on Grynspan is racist as he is described as a "Polish Jew." He is not described as German or even German Jewish despite his having been born in Germany. This is comparable to the situation of immigrants to Germany in the post-WWII years whose children and grandchildren were born in Germany yet are not considered German; and to the plight of the Rohinghya in Myanmar, who, despite having settled in Burma in the late 19th century, and several generations of descendants having been born there are not only not considered citizens of Myanmar, they have been subject to ethnic cleansing led by Buddhist monks and perpetrated by the Myanmar military.

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After Grynspan shot a German diplomat in Paris on Nov. 7, 1938 (the diplomat died from his injuries two days later) the German and Austrian Nazis unleashed Kristallnacht, also known as The Night of Broken Glass. 

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During this Nazi government sponsored murderous rioting and pillaging, several hundred Jews were murdered; 30,000 Jews were arrested and  sent to concentration camps;  thousands of Jewish-owned stores were pillaged; and hundreds of synagogues were burned to the ground.

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Judenfisches is German for Jewfishes. The prevalence of words of fish and plants with Jew in the wordage, e.g. the wandering Jew plant;and Jewfish, has struck me (for many years) as bizarre. I addressed this strange wordage in a pictorial portion of UTW 59: Mira Steiner of Zagreb.

See Youtube videos about that artwork including video taken during tours of the 2013 exhibit at the Hillel Center, Seattle.

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The fish drawn by Grynspan's left shoulder (to viewers right) is of a devil fish as if singing something grand. Think of the song “Tomorrow Belongs to Me,” sung by Nazis and Nazi sympathizers in a scene in the 1972 movie “Cabaret.” 

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Grynspan wrote: "It is not a crime to be a Jew. I am not a dog. I have a right to live. The Jewish people have a right to some part of the earth."
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A 91 sec.  video of the drawing taken after it was reframed in 2018:

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In light of the Palestinian struggle for a homeland following the loss of their homes, villages, orchards and businesses in 1948, regardless of whether some left voluntarily or were forced out, following the birth of Israel out of the ashes of the murder of two-thirds of European Jewry and the resettlement of hundreds of thousands of Jews from the mid-east and north African countries, the crushing and bitter words written by Grynspan re: Jewish people, seem, in relation to the plight of the Palestinians, sadly and tragically ironic.

UTW 47 through 69 artworks & text to be added, stay tuned