A Tribute to Charlotte Salomon October 19, 2008

The painter Charlotte Salomon, born in Berlin in 1917, grew up in an assimilated Jewish family as the daughter of a surgeon and a singer. Hitler's rise to power changed the family's situation drastically and Charlotte escaped in 1939 to her grandparents' estate in the South of France. The Gestapo arrested her there in 1943 and deported her to Auschwitz, where she was murdered. Before her arrest she gave her complete work to a friend, reminding him: "Please keep this safe. This is my entire life!" Accompanying the Charlotte Salomon Exhibition at the Oregon Jewish Museum, a tribute will be presented to the artist which will be comprised of musical pieces she herself identified as inspirations for her painting, and excerpts of her textual work while her pictures are projected on screen.