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Stephen Bornstein researched and recreated his Mother's family saga from 1880's through 1960's.
All 7 members of the immediate Einhorn Family survived WWII and Hilter. Thus the title of the piece
Einhorn 7 – Hitler 0
Using actual photographs, creating fictionalized photographs based on actual events and recreating documents from historical sources the artist traces his family exodus from Germany throughout the world.
Top portion - EARLY YEARS
1. Actual photo Aaron Einhorn's (Born July 13, 1884, Frankfurt - Sept. 23, 1949, Buenos Aires) mother, Goldie (born Aug. 14, 1854, Frankfurt). Who told stories of her childhood in the Frankfurt jewish ghetto before Bismarck emancipation of the Jews.
2. Artist's rendition of photo (actually shown below) that Aaron saw in a photographer's shop window in Cracow during a trip selling dry goods. He fell in love with the girl in the photo, Gisella Bondy (Born Oct. 19, 1895, Krakow - May 27, 1960, Buenos Aires) and vowed to himself to find her and marry her. Your mother has a bracelet my mother gave her made from the necklace she's wearing in photo.
3. Actual signature of Gisella. I found it on my parent's exit request document from Germany 1938.
4. Actual photo of two from early years together (shown above).
Dutch/WWI era travel documents
5. Photo of Maly, Rene and Arron probably 1920.
6. Photo of 4 of 5 kids on beach in Holland during WWI, around 1918. Ben, Maly, Max, Gisella, and Lulu.
Gisella, Dutch/WWI, period with list of children travel with couple
7. Fictional Katuba.
8. Fictional graphic showing Early Marriage history Married in 1905 in Wien.
and the birth of all the children and where. Rene: Berlin,1909, Malweina, Cracow, 1910, Maximillian, Wien, 1911, Ludwig, Berlin,1912, Benjamin, Holland 1917,
9. Fictional identity cards with actual photos of Maly. Shows how she lived during the 3 German reichs: Kaiser, Weimar, Nazis.
10. Actual wedding photo and invitation of Rene Einhorn and Kurt Goldstein, Dec. 31, 1935.
11. Actual wedding photo and actual thank you card from wedding of Malweina Einhorn and Jack Bornstein dated June, 14 1935.
1935- 1946 THE WORLD WAR II YEARS.
The Two Girls:
12. U.S. Postage stamp (from the 30's) dated Dec. 26, 1938. The day Maly arrives in N.Y.C. Underneath, an imaginary graphic representing the German exit stamps on their travel documents (no reentry).
13. Actual photo Maly on New Amsterdam coming to America, 12/1938
14. Actual photo of Rene in B.A. 1937(?)
15. Argentine postage stamp 1930's
The Three Boys:
16. Actual photo of Ludwig (Lulu) in Palestine 1935. He had been sent there in 1936 to finish studies when the Nazis closed the Jewish High Schools. My Father Jack Bornstein (Lulu's new Brother-in-law) visited him while on a on a trip to apply for a medical license in Palestine. Jack saw Lulu was sick with Malaria (from cleaning out a large swamp there). Upon returning to Berlin, he informed his new parents-in-law of Lulu's dire condition. They were able to bring him back to Berlin during the 1936 Olympics. Rene (who arrived in B.A. in 1936, accompanying Kurt who had a job representing a German manufacturer) helped Him emigrate to Argentine in 1937. He later told me, he blamed Jack, for he not being able to stay in what became Israel.
17. Stamps; Nazi Germany, British Palestine Mandate (from actual envelope with letter to Jack denying his license application) and Argentine.
18. Actual photo of Ben 1937. He was deported to Poland during Krystal Nacht 11/1038. After two weeks huddling in the no-mans zone. He was smuggled into Poland.. He sought out relatives in Warsaw who denounced him to the military draft board. He was ordered to appear on Sept. 2. 1939. When Germany invaded Poland Sept. 1, 1939, Ben did not appear the next day. He fled east to the area occupied by the Russians. A few weeks later, he awoke one morning to find Germans outside. The Russians had pulled out during the night. He was quickly arrested a spent the next 6 years beginning as a slave laborer (he was able to easily communicate with the German guards' instructions) and later as concentration camp inmate.
19. 1930's Polish postage stamps.
20. Actual photo of Max in Holland 1936. Max first went there(1935). He worked as an illustrator for Holland American Lines. Created many of the iconic ocean liner images from that era. He emigrated to New York in 1937 and quickly gained meaningful employment with his skills. He was there in America and offered moral support when Maly and Jack arrived in Dec. 1938.
21. 1930's Postage stamps, Holland & U.S.
The Two Parents- Arron and Gisella - EINHORN 7
22. Color coded map of the Einhorn travels.
includes ill-fated St. Louis fiasco 1939. Hitler's attempt to show that no body wanted his "Jewish problem". After purchasing visas in Hamburg from the Cuban counsel,1200 German Jews travel to Havana, only to be denied entry.
Max travels down to Cuba from New York to try and see them. He can only come close in a row boat. See movie info at: "Voyage of the damed" -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyage_of_the_Damned.
Return to Germany means immediate arrest. The American Jews lobby Roosevelt to no avail. They anchor off Miami Beach for 2 weeks while the Jews raise a million dollars ($100 million now). Still no admission. The steam back to Germany. Threatening to commit mass suicide, five European countries divide passengers. Arron, who spoke english (he studied accounting there), became the group's official english spokesman. England accepts him in, temporally. Only the 300 who went to England survive the war. In 1940, the couple emigrates to Argentina after Rene bribes Perón party officials there.
Arron's WWII era travel documents and papers from SS. St Louis
23. Actual Photo of pair on St. Louis (life saver in background). Note, they are carrying what appears to be all their valuables with them rather then leave them in the cabin unattended.
24. Artistic representation of graphic material from the ship done in style Max created for other ocean liner company.
25. Actual photos of Einhorn's from photos for visa applications in England 1940).
26. A combination of an actual photo of Max in his U.S. Army uniform together with an artistic representation of his work during the war in the Model making unit responsible with training pilots targeting axis sites and using "Nordon bombsight" technology (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norden_bombsight).
Max is forced to remain in military until 1947, helping develop their advertising materials to reintegrate soldiers to civilian life. Max returns to Berlin right after V-E day looking for his brother Ben.
27. Artistic representation of Ben in a concentration camp. He worked as a sign painter for several years in various camps including Krakow plazcow, the one shown in the movie Schindler's List. Also 2 years in what was later revealed to be a nazi uranium mine in southern Poland. People from over 20 countries labored there. Average life expectancy - 6 weeks. At the end of the war, too weak to work any longer, Ben was sent to an extermination camp, but liberated by the Russians in 1945. After the war Ben drifts back to Berlin, where he was recognized by the superintendent of his building and given shelter.
28. Artistic representation of U.S. identity card. After Max finds Ben, he is still ill from years under the Germans. Max gets him admitted to a U.S. hospital for a while.
29. After his release, Max provides Ben money and cigarets, which Ben uses as currency. Ben buys a kayak to take girls on the river Spree surrounded by Berlin's devastation, angers Max. Max returns with Army to New York.
30. Actual photo of Ben's wife, Rose and his daughter Marcy and one of her two children Johnny. Ben emigrates to the U.S. in 1949. Meets Rose a Polish surviver, they marry in 1952. They move to New Jersey, Ben works as a house painter. Ben and Rose have one daughter, Marcy. She grows up to have two children, Erin and Johnny. Ben finally follows Marcy to California, where he dies at 80 in 1999. The longest surviving male Einhorn.
Bottom portion - Argentina YEARS
31. Liliana Goldstein, Daughter or Rene Einhorn and Kurt Goldstein. First Einhorn grand child, born in B.A. 1947.
32. Maly travels to Argentina in the winter of 1947, on the first commercial air flight after the war. Her husband Jack sends her their after the death of a prematurely born daughter in 1947. Here Maly is shown with her parents and Silberberg a friend of her parents from Berlin.
33. Family photo, Lulu, Arron, Rene, Maly, Gizella, and Silberberg. Ben and Max not shown.
34. Maly's actual 1947 passport
35. Maly and her father Arron. In passes away in 1949
36. A photo of the Artist Stephen Bornstein (10) and his brother Peter (5), taken during a visit to B.A. in 1958. Maly husband's Jack dies suddenly of a heart attack in 1956 at 51 years old. Maly contemplated moving to Argentina and travels there for several months. This is the last time she sees her mother. She decides to return to the U.S. where her two brothers, Max and Ben live.
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