Frankl, Adolf (1903-1983): papers regarding art exhibition

Papers of Adolf Frankl, 1975-1990, relate to an art exhibition of Adolf Frankl's works and consist of correspondence, opening addresses, newspaper reviews and catalogues.

Adolf Frankl was born in 1903, the son of a Jewish businessman in Bratislava. Having shown an aptitude for art at an early age, he was discouraged from making a career out of his talent and went to work in his father's business from 1920. He married Renee Nachmias in 1933 and founded his own interior decoration business in 1937. The advent of the Nazis and, in particular, the establishment of the puppet Tiso-regime in Slovakia, resulted in pogroms against the country's Jewish population. Frankl's business was aryanised in 1941 and he was forced to live in a ghetto with his family.

Frankl was sent to Auschwitz in 1944, where he survived. It was only after the war that the full horror began to trouble him in the form of recurrent nightmares. It was suggested that he paint as a way of working through his horrific experiences. The paintings which were used in the exhibition entitled Visionen aus dem Inferno were the result. Material relating to this exhibition is described below.

After the war Frankl lived in Vienna and New York then, from the 1960s, in Germany. He died in 1983.

Arranged in original order.

Open

Deposited by the family.

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