Felix Nussbaum

The son of the city whose legacy is being cultivated with great commitment is Felix Nussbaum. The painter, who was born in Osnabrück in 1904 and murdered in Auschwitz in 1944, has his own museum dedicated to him in his home town. In the Felix Nussbaum House, designed and realised by architect Daniel Libeskind, more than 200 of the artist's paintings are kept and shown in changing exhibitions.

Nussbaum grew up in Osnabrück as the son of a Jewish merchant who was himself an amateur painter. As a result, Felix was encouraged to paint from an early age and also to complete an artistic education. He studied in Hamburg and Berlin. His paintings, which are now categorised as New Objectivity, were soon shown in exhibitions. However, when the National Socialists took control of Germany, Felix Nussbaum quickly realised what it meant to be unwelcome and persecuted as a Jew. He went into exile in Italy and France with his wife Felka Platek. In 1937, Brussels became the artist couple's home.

Two days after the invasion of German troops on 8 May 1940, Felix Nussbaum was arrested by the Belgian authorities and taken to the Saint-Cyprien internment camp in the south of France, from where he was able to escape and return to Brussels. The couple hid with an art dealer friend, but were denounced and deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp at the beginning of August 1944. Both died there in the final weeks before the camp was liberated. During his time in exile, Nussbaum's paintings were increasingly characterised by his personal situation, the themes of persecution, hopelessness and the Holocaust. The painting that is considered to be his last is entitled "Triumph of Death (The Skeletons Play to the Dance)" and is an apocalyptic vision.