With support from the University of Richmond

History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. Join us to learn more about the past, now.

Auschwitz prisoner fights to recover her paintings [audio 8min]

In 1944, the notorious Nazi doctor Josef Mengele ordered Dina Gottliebova Babbitt to paint portraits of Gypsy prisoners at Poland's Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Mengele, known as the "Angel of Death," wanted portraits of Gypsies, or Roma people, to document what the Nazis saw as their "degenerate" racial characteristics. Photographs, which he had used previously, lacked color. Now 83, Babbitt is trying to recover seven of the original works, which are in the museum at the site of the camp.
Read entire article at NPR "All Things Considered"