11. The Artist and the Führer (2025)  – Sierra Kaag

2025. Wooden plinth with book and projection of film produced by Sierra Kaag and Paula Kolar 

Sierra Kaag’s work-in-progress explores the journeys of objects
from their origins, through the Holocaust, to their arrival in the
Holocaust Centre North Archive. Her focus is a collection of
books that once belonged to Hugo Friedmann, brought by him
into the ghetto-camp of Theresienstadt and used as part of a
small library there.

For this exhibition, Kaag draws attention to a single title: Der Künstler
und der Führer (The Artist and the Leader) by Max Liebermann.
She presents a copy of the same edition held in the Holocaust
Centre North Archive, originally donated by the Kubie family. The
accompanying film, created in collaboration with curator Paula
Kolar, reflects on the journey of the Friedmann family, the trajectory
of the books, and the threads that bind them.

With thanks to the Kubie family whose collection features in this
work. Courtesy of Holocaust Centre North Archive.

Film contains excerpt from ‘Theresienstadt: A Documentary Film,
1944’ by Kurt Gerron and Ivan Fric. Archival reference: RG-60.0269.
Accessed at United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

The book, ‘Der Künstler und der Führer’ (The Artist and the Leader), by Max Liebermann,
belonged to Hugo Friedmann, uncle of child refugee Tom Kubie. Hugo, his wife Hildegard
and their children Hans Georg and Liselotte were deported from Vienna to Theresienstadt ghetto-camp in 1942. Much to Hildegard’s dismay, Hugo used much of his luggage allowance to bring his books into Theresienstadt with him. The couple were later deported to Auschwitz, where Hildegard was murdered in October 1944. Hugo died in the Kaufering subcamp of Dachau in 1945. Another copy of the same edition as that held in the Holocaust Centre North Archive is on display in this installation.

Holocaust Centre North, courtesy of the Kubie family.