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Marianne Grant’s Bergen-Belsen Painting
Marianne Grant survived three concentration camps through World War Two, including Auschwitz. She is an artist whose pictures and memorabilia are a unique record of the Holocaust.
Marianne actually used her skills to keep herself alive in the camps. As an artist, the Nazis found a purpose for her. The infamous Dr. Josef Mengele, who was nicknamed the Angel of Death by the camp inmates, charged Marianne to sketch the results of his experiments. His main areas of interest concerned studies in twins and dwarves. Marianne found herself making sketches of his work, including the results of an attempt by Mengele to sew a set of twins together in order to create Siamese twins.
Upon her request, Marianne was also permitted to paint the walls of the children’s infirmary. She covered the cold, white walls with colourful images of farm yard animals, bringing some sense of fun and normality to the lives of the young inmates at Bergen-Belsen.
At the time of her captivity Marianne, who was from Czechoslovakia, was just 17 years old. She completed the Bergen-Belsen painting when she was 24. It depicts a horrific scene – a pile of people who are either dead or dying from disease or malnutrition.
Where can it be found? At the Kelvingrove Museum & Gallery, Glasgow.
Deborah Haase, curator, says: "It is a small painting but it has a big story to tell."
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