DINAH GOTTLIEBOVA-BABBITT

Born January 21, 1923 in Brno, Czechoslovakia; today lives in the United States

Background
Gottliebova studied printmaking and sculpture in Brno and moved to Prague after the German partition and occupation of Czechoslovakia of 1938-39.

Arrest and Deportation to Theresienstadt
Upon learning that her mother was to be deported, Gottliebova returned to Brno where on January 28, 1942, together with her mother she was deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto.

Deportation to Auschwitz
September 8, 1943 Gottliebova was deported with her mother and stepbrother to the Theresienstadt family camp (sector BIIb) at Auschwitz-Birkenau, where she was assigned prisoner number 61016.  March 1944 she was transferred to the women’s camp (sector BIa) at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Art Produced at Auschwitz
Gottliebova was assigned to paint numbers on barracks and portraits of SS men and their families.  She also created several wall paintings depicting scenes from Disney films such as Snow White.  Her wall paintings brought her to the attention of Dr. Franz Lucas, physician for the Theresienstadt family camp and the Gypsy family camp (BIIe) at Birkenau.  There, she was assigned by SS Captain Dr. Josef Mengele, the senior SS physician at Birkenau, to make portraits of Gypsy prisoners used in his genetic and anthropologic medical experiments for a book about these experiments.  She painted between ten and twelve portraits in all, seven of which are now located at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.  Gottliebova later described this commission: "I painted slowly, conserving the work that was light, giving me a better opportunity of living through the camp.  One portrait took about two weeks.  Dr. Mengele examined each portrait very carefully; on some, he asked me to make minor changes or additions."  Her assignment ended in early August 1944, when the Gypsy camp was dissolved and the remaining Gypsy prisoners gassed.  In addition to these Gypsy portraits, Gottliebova produced portraits of Polish and Czech women prisoners.

Liberation and After
With the liquidation of Auschwitz-Birkenau in January 1945, Gottliebova was transported to Ravensbrück. There, she was assigned to paint registration numbers on airplanes at the Dornier aircraft factory at the Ravensbrück subcamp at Neustadt Gleve, where she was liberated in May 1945.  Following liberation, Gottliebova moved to Paris and in 1947 immigrated to the United States, where she later worked as a commercial artist drawing cartoons for several Hollywood studios.

Bibliography:
Archives and art collection at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oświęcim.

Goldmann, Sybille and Myrah Adams Rösing.  Kunst zum Überleben: Gezeichnet in

Auschwitz. Ulm, 1989.

Heubner, Christoph, Alwin Meyer, and Jürgen Pieplow, eds.  Lebenszeichen: Gesehen in Auschwitz. Bornheim-Merten, 1979.

Kubica, Helen.  "Dr. Mengele und seine Verbrechen im Konzentrationslager Auschwitz-Birkenau," Hefte von Auschwitz 20 (1997), 369-436.

Lasik, Aleksander.  "Die Personalbesetzung des Gesundheitsdienstes der SS im Konzentrationslager Auschwitz-Birkenau in den Jahren 1940-1945," Hefte von Auschwitz 20 (1997), 290-368.

Milton, Sybil and Janet Blatter.  Art of the Holocaust. New York, 1981.

Szymanska, Irena. "'Zigeuner' in bildnerischen Arbeiten von Häftlingen des KL Auschwitz," Pro Memoria 10 (2000), 57-62.