Metadata: Bernhard Danenhirsh. Personal fonds
Collection
- Country:
- Latvia
- Holding institution:
- National Library of Latvia
- Holding institution (official language):
- Latvijas Nacionālā Bibliotēka
- Postal address:
- Mūkusalas iela 3, Rīga, LV-1423
- Phone number:
- +371 6780 6100
- Web address:
- www.lnb.lv
- Email:
- lnb@lnb.lv
- Reference number:
- RXA244
- Title:
- Bernhard Danenhirsh. Personal fonds
- Title (official language):
- Bernhards Danenhiršs. Personīgais fonds
- Creator/accumulator:
- Danenhirsh, Bernhard
- Date(s):
- 1941/1972
- Language:
- Russian
- Latvian
- German
- Extent:
- 106 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Photographic images
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
- The personal fonds of the painter Bernhard Danenhirsch contains documents, essays, speeches, reviews, periodicals, transcripts, excerpts, notes, bibliographies, lecture notes, biographical materials, diaries, letters, photographs, drawings and reproductions. At the communist party meeting in 1949, Danenhirsch was accused of “hiding his father’s social status” among other crimes. His father was a merchant of the 2nd guild in 1906. Hew was also accused of “participation in nationalist Jewish organisations" in the 1930s. The minutes of the meetings contain notes of Danenhirsch's explanations. His father Leib worked as an employee of an engineering plant for 25 years. "In 1906, he left the factory, but failed as a merchant. I had to leave secondary school, because my father could not pay tuition. The distress forced our father to send my mother and us children to Narva, in Estonia, where our grandmother lived. As a result of my father’s financial situation and his owing debts to landlords, he was forced to move apartment frequently.” Further, Danenhirsch says that he was accepted to the OSEK (Jewish Colonisation Assistance Society) without his knowledge. He joined TSISHO (professional organisation of Jewish teachers), as a teacher of the Jewish school, but after infighting with the Bund, he left the organisation in 1932. Danenhirsch also admitted that he worked for Morgn newspaper, but that he only drew the headline and fundraised. The fonds contains correspondence and photographs with his many friends. The collection of documents will be interesting to researchers of the political, cultural and social life of the Jewish community in Latvia in the post-war period.
- Archival history:
- Unknown
- Administrative/biographical history:
- Bernhard Danenhirsch (1894-1972) was a painter. He graduated from the Riga Jewish vocational school, and fought and was wounded in the First World War. In 1919-1921 he fought in the Latvian army. In 1930 he graduated from the Latvian Academy of Arts. He taught drawing and art history at the Rauhvarger Jewish Gymnasium, Riga City Jewish Gymnasium, Riga Jewish Public Grammar School and other Jewish schools. Danenhirsch participated in the exhibition of Jewish artists (1928), the exhibition of Jewish artists of the Latvian Art Society (1938) and many other exhibitions. As an artist, he collaborated with the Jewish press of the 1930s. He worked as a stage designer at the State Jewish Theatre of the Latvian SSR in 1940. During the Second World War Danenhirsch was evacuated to Russia with his wife and daughter and he worked as an artist and teacher in the cello class. His mother Rebecca, sister Eva with her husband and son, brother Julius with his wife and three children, sister Berta and her husband were killed during the Holocaust. After the war, Danenhirsch returned to Riga, worked as an artist and graphic designer, and received the title of Honoured Art Worker of the Latvian SSR.
- Access points: locations:
- Riga
- Subject terms:
- Antisemitism
- Art
- Art--Artists
- Correspondence
- Jewish press
- Personal records
- Photographs
- Yerusha Network member:
- Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People
- Author of the description:
- Jana Makarova
