The Frankfurter Allgemeine in Frankfurt, Germany, reported in a recent article that Richard Liebermann who was born in 1900 was a deaf Jewish painter who converted to Catholicism. He painted a number of pictures including a portrait of Albert Einstein and also a portrait of Max Liebermann (not related). Although he was banned from exhibiting and working in 1933, he worked as an art teacher in 1936 at a Jewish institution in Herrlingen where Jewish citizens were preparing to emigrate to Palestine.

After the Night of Broken Glass, the nocturnal pogrom of 1938, Liebermann was imprisoned in Dachau’s concentration camp and then taken to the Gurs internment camp in 1940. He kept a folder with photos of his paintings even during his years of deportation. His mother and one brother were murdered but Liebermann and his brother Paul and sister Gertrude were released under unclassified circumstances in 1943. They hid in a French monastery where Liebermann spent the last years of the war. He later lived on occasional commissions and a small indemnity pension. Liebermann’s paintings were on display at the Edwin Scharff Museum in Neu-Ulm until February 3rd. Liebermann died 35 years ago.