Film and Podcast
Path of Life and Rediscovery
The Discovery of J. D. Kirszenbaum and the Miraculous Survival of the Diament Family – Part 1
The Discovery of J. D. Kirszenbaum and the Miraculous Survival of the Diament Family – Part 2
© Luftgeshefte Podcast 2021
Text version and further information:
https://www.luftgeshefte.com/jdkirszenbaumenglish
The Discovery of J. D. Kirszenbaum and the Miraculous Survival of the Diament Family
After Nathan Diament retired from his professional life in business and administration in 2005 and his mother Lea and aunt Rachel died, he dedicated himself, together with his brother Amos, to rediscovering the work of J. D. Kirszenbaum, their great uncle. Amos and Nathan Diament had grown up with his work on the walls. At the age of 66, Nathan studied art history for two years and contacted archives and museums, which then brought works by Kirszenbaum out of their cellars and magazines into the light of day. He organized exhibitions and published a book about the painter Kirszenbaum. (J. D. Kirszenbaum (1900 – 1954) The Lost Generation – La Generation Perdue, Somogy Editions D’Art). Nathan and Amos are committed to ensuring that Kirszenbaum’s work is given its rightful place in the history of modern Jewish art.
Their parents Josek Diament and Gitla Laja Albaum (Kirszenbaum) had fled from Poland to Belgium in the 1930s. Nathan Diament was born in Brussels in 1938. When he was four years old, his parents had to hand him and his little brother Amos over into the hands of Christian people. They themselves were hidden in an attic. There was no talk about how the eldest son Jacob survived. There was no talk about that time at all.
Chazkele
© Luftgeshefte Podcast 2022
Text version and further information:
https://www.luftgeshefte.com/chazkele-english
Jecheskiel »Chazkele« David Kirszenbaum
In the summer of 1900, a child was surprisingly born to a large, bitterly poor family in the Shtetl of Staszów. Chazkel (Jechezkel) David Kirszenbaum,son of Rabbi Natan Meir and his wife Rachel Alta.
Ever since his earliest childhood, Chazkele had eyes for the people around him, the water carriers and porters, the tailors, the praying, the poorest of the poor, the disabled and meshiggene, the Christian neighbors and for their peculiarities, viciousness, their suffering and religious fervor.
Based on the childhood memories of the painter, cartoonist and sculpter Jecheskel David Kirszenbaum (1900–1954).
Lebensstationen des Jecheskiel David Kirszenbaums
Jecheskiel David Kirszenbaums Lebensweg führt in der ersten Hälfte des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts durch drei europäische Länder, in denen er lebt und arbeitet. Quer durch Europa geht es von Polen nach Deutschland und von dort weiter nach Frankreich. Keine dieser Veränderungen ist geplant oder gewollt, stets muss Kirszenbaum der Not gehorchen und Liebgewonnenes verlassen. Die politischen Gegebenheiten sind dem sensiblen Künstler nicht gewogen – Vertreibung, Flucht und Elend sind stets seine Wegbegleiter. Dennoch findet er trotz aller Zwänge letztlich immer wieder die Kraft, aus den Ortswechseln kreative Impulse zu gewinnen, die sein künstlerisches Schaffen beeinflussen. Er ist – gewollt oder ungewollt – ein »europäischer« Künstler. In diesem Video werden Kirszenbaums Lebensstationen nachgezeichnet.