Postcard from Sculptor Ottilie Wollmann in Theresienstadt to Felix Hepner at the Pension Beau Sejour in Vevey, Switzerland

Authors

Object ID

2021.1.15

Object Name

Postcard

Date

6-12-1943

Files

Content Warning

The Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection consists of images, documents, and artifacts related to the Holocaust. The collection contains materials that depict a number of topics that may be difficult for viewers to engage with, including: antisemitic descriptions, caricatures, and representation of Jewish people; Nazi imagery and ideology; descriptions and images of German ghettos; graphic images of the violence of the Holocaust; and the creation of the State of Israel. For more information, see our policy page.

Description

Signed and stamped postcard in black ink dated June 12, 1943.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

Ottilie Wollmann was a German sculptor born in Berlin in 1882. She had studied with Fritz Klimsch and Max Kruse and was a member of the Association of Berlin Women Artists. Ottilie worked in an Impressionist idiom. Her sculpture Mother and Child received an award at the Jewish Museum exhibit in 1935. A cast of her bronze Gret Palucca was shown in the 2004 The Eternal Female exhibition at the Gothic House in Berlin. As a Jewish artist, however, she - like the dancer and teacher Palucca whom she immortalized - would be persecuted by the Nazis.

Ottilie and her mother were transported to Theresienstadt Ghetto/Concentration Camp in July, 1942. Her mother perished there, but Ottilie would be deported to Auschwitz on October 9, 1944 where she was murdered.

This postcard is written to Felix Hepner, owner of a boarding house in Vevey Switzerland, probably a relative on her mother’s side of the family, while Ottilie is in Theresienstadt, dated 12 June 1943 Theresienstadt: “Greetings and heartfelt birthday wishes to my sister and Marta Kuznitzky. Packages and postal delivery come promptly. I am doing well, I work as always. Hopefully you are all in good health. I was delighted to hear from you so soon. Write often even if you don't get confirmation right away. Always with you in my thoughts. Love, Your Ottilie Wollman” (signed).

Dimensions

6 x 4"

Keywords

Ottilie Wollmann, Theresienstadt

Subcollection

Ghettos

Recommended Citation

"Postcard from Sculptor Ottilie Wollmann in Theresienstadt to Felix Hepner at the Pension Beau Sejour in Vevey, Switzerland" (1943). Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection. 2021.1.15.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash/1717