Irene Awret or Irene Spicker (1921–2014) was a German artist, author and Holocaust survivor.

Biography

Awret née Spicker was born on January 30, 1921, in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. She was the youngest of three children. In 1937, as a result of the

Nuremberg Laws The Nuremberg Laws (german: link=no, Nürnberger Gesetze, ) were antisemitic and racist laws that were enacted in Nazi Germany on 15 September 1935, at a special meeting of the Reichstag convened during the annual Nuremberg Rally of th ...

, Irene left high school and began studying drawing and painting. Around 1939 she and a sister fled to Belgium, where she stayed for several years. She continued her studies and eventually was able to find work restoring wooden sculptures. In 1943 Awret was detained by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

in occupied Belgium and subsequently sent to the

Mechelen transit camp The Mechelen transit camp, officially () in German, also known as the Dossin barracks, was a detention and deportation camp established in a former army barracks at Mechelen in German-occupied Belgium. It served as a point to gather Belgian Je ...

. There she worked in the camp art workshop where she produced signs and armbands. She was also required to paint portraits of Nazi officers. In the camp she met Azriel Awret (1910-2011)), fellow artist and prisoner. The two married in late 1944 after the liberation of Mechelen. The couple and their children emigrated to

Safed Safed (known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as Tzfat; Sephardi Hebrew, Sephardic Hebrew & Modern Hebrew: צְפַת ''Tsfat'', Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation, Ashkenazi Hebrew: ''Tzfas'', Biblical Hebrew: ''Ṣǝp̄aṯ''; ar, صفد, ''Ṣafad''), i ...

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

in 1949. There they founded an art colony. In the 1970s the couple moved to the United States. In 2004 Awret's memoir ''They'll Have to Catch Me First: An Artist's Coming of Age in the Third Reich'' () was published by the University of Wisconsin Press. Awret died in

Falls Church Falls Church is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 14,658. Falls Church is included in the Washington metropolitan area. Taking its name from The Falls Church, an 18th-century Churc ...

, Virginia on June 6, 2014.

Legacy

Awret's paintings are included in the collection of the '' Beit Lohamei Haghetaot'' (Ghetto Fighters' House Museum). More of the couple's art is located at the ''Kazerne Dossin: Memoriaal, Museum en Documentatiecentrum over Holocaust en Mensenrechten'' (

Kazerne Dossin Memorial, Museum and Documentation Centre The Kazerne Dossin Holocaust memorial is the only part of the Kazerne Dossin: Memorial, Museum and Documentation Centre on Holocaust and Human Rights established ''within'' the former Mechelen transit camp of World War II, from which, in German-oc ...

). Awret's 1939 passport is in the

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust. Adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the USHMM provides for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust hi ...

References

External links

images of Awret's work
on Invaluable {{DEFAULTSORT:Awret, Irene 1921 births 2014 deaths Artists from Berlin 20th-century German women artists 20th-century German women writers German emigrants to Israel Jewish concentration camp survivors Israeli emigrants to the United States