Dean Bloch (right), the son of David Bloch, the German artist who created hundreds of paintings and woodcuts about the life and customs in Shanghai during 1930s and 40s, introduces part of his father’s works to visitors at the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum on Friday. Photo: Wang Rongjiang / SHINE
Source: SHINE
Editor: Wang Qingchu
Yang Jian
15:53 UTC+8, 2017-12-30
The family of David Bloch (1910-2002), a deaf-mute Jewish painter and former refugee in Shanghai during the World War II, presented a batch of his works to the city on Friday.
Dean Bloch, the son of the German artist who created hundreds of paintings and woodcuts about the life and customs in Shanghai during 1930s and 40s, presented 32 of his father’s works to the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum for exhibition.
The artworks, including 21 paintings, eight woodcuts and three painting tools of David Bloch, are about the hard life of toiling masses in Shanghai and his miserable experiences in a Nazi concentration camp. He spent nine years in the city around 1940s during the war and married a Chinese woman.
“The artworks are merely little part of David Bloch’s works, and the museum will work together with Bloch’s family for a more complete exhibition about his artworks,” said Chen Jian, curator of the museum. Hundreds of other works of Bloch have been collected by his family and will be presented to Shanghai, which was deemed as the second hometown of Bloch, according his family.
Dean Bloch (right), the son of David Bloch, poses with some of his father’s works and painting tools with his wife at the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum on Friday. Photo: Wang Rongjiang / SHINE
David Bloch was born in 1910 in a Bavarian town Floss. He lost his parents and became deaf after an illness when he was 3 years old. He studied design and woodcut at an art college in Munich.
Bloch was arrested and sent to the Dachau concentration camp along with a large number of Jews on the evening of November 9, 1938, known as the Crystal Night, when the Nazis smashed a large number of homes and stores belonging to Jews and Jewish synagogues.
He was released later because he was deaf-mute and with the help of his friends. He followed his cousin
