Philipp Manes (1875–1944)
Philipp Manes was born in Neuwied, Rhineland, in August 1875, to Edward and Lizette. The family moved to Berlin when he was 11, and later on he joined the family fur and tobacco trading busines. Philipp became a furrier, wrote articles on the subject, and established the union of furriers in Berlin, serving as its head for seven years. In June 1905, he married Gertrud née Elias, and they had four children. During World War I, he was recruited to the Russian front, where he ran several bookstores for the soldiers. He became an officer, and was awarded the Iron Cross for bravery.
In 1939, Manes started a diary, in which he described life under the Nazi regime in Berlin, and continued to write entries until his death. His four children succeeded in leaving Germany before it was too late. In the course of winter 1941, at the age of 67, Manes was conscripted to forced labor in a factory, and in July 1942, he and Gertrude were deported to the Terezin ghetto on transport 1/29. At Terezin, Philipp established the "Manes Lecture Group" that held over 500 lectures, plays, performances and readings over two years in the framework of the "Leisure Time Department". On 28 October 1944, Philipp and Gertrud were deported on transport Ev to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where they were murdered.
After the war, Philipp's diary was published in the book: "As If It Were Life: A WWII Diary from the Theresienstadt Ghetto," where he wrote:
"Theresienstadt may be proud that its inmates came together as such a beautiful community to prove that in the ghetto art can unfold freely despite chains, and no narrow confines and no walls can cripple it."
Julie Wolfthorn (1864-1944)
Born in Thorn, Prussia, to the Wolf family, the youngest of five children. Her father died before she was born, and her mother died when she was just six years old. Julie was raised by her grandmother, with whom she moved to Berlin in 1883. In 1890, she studied at Curt Hermann's Drawing and Painting School for Ladies in Berlin. As women were forbidden to study painting at the academies in Germany, she continued her studies at the Académie Colarosi in Paris. In 1893, she returned to Berlin and lived with her sister, Louise. By the early 20th century, Wolfthorn had become one of the leading female artists in Germany, together with Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945) and Dora Hitz (1856-1924). Wolfthorn was known chiefly for her portraits, and her works were displayed at many exhibitions, including in Munich, Hamburg and Berlin. In 1898, she took part in the founding of the Berlin Secession and the "Verein der Künstlerinnen und Kunstfreunde Berlin" (Association of Artists and Art Lovers Berlin). From 1906, she was a member of the Association of German Artists, and the same year, founded the "Verbindung Bildender Künstlerinnen" together with Käthe Kollwitz.
After the Nazis' rise to power in 1933, Wolfthorn was ousted from the directorship of the Secession and the artists' associations, and was only permitted to display her work in the framework of "Kulturbund Deutscher Juden" (Cultural Association of German Jews), which was active in the years 1933-1941 in the fields of culture and art. She continued to paint and work in Berlin until 1941, when the Gestapo shut the Cultural Association of German Jews down. In October 1942, at the age of 78, Julie Wolfthorn was deported to the Terezin ghetto together with her sister Louise, where she continued to paint clandestinely until her death in December 1944.
