A collection of rarely seen portraits of Jewish prisoners forced to work for the Nazis in a money-forging scheme fictionalized in the Oscar-winning film “The Counterfeiters” is being donated to Israel’s Holocaust museum.
Heirs of the artist who created the 43 portraits formally handed over the works to Yad Vashem at a ceremony Sept. 2 in New York City.
The portraits are by Felix Cytrin, a Jewish engraver forced by the Nazis to help produce fake British pounds in a plot to destroy England’s economy.
The portraits of his fellow prisoners were created while Cytrin was imprisoned at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. They have been in his family’s hands for decades.
The works will be integrated into Yad Vashem’s art collection. Some will be exhibited in Jerusalem in December. — ap