Algirdas Savickis

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Algirdas Savickis, around 1940

Algirdas Savickis (born September 10, 1917 in Copenhagen , Denmark ; † October 1, 1943 in Ghetto Kauen ( Kaunas / Kowno ), General District Lithuania , Reichskommissariat Ostland ), also Algirdo Savickio , was a Lithuanian painter who was murdered under German occupation.

family

Algirdas, the mother of Ida Trakiner-Savickienė and Augustinas , around 1927

Algirdas Savickis was the elder of two sons of the Lithuanian diplomat Jurgis Savickis and his wife, the dentist Ida Trakiner-Savickienė (1894-1944). Their wealthy (Jewish) family lived in Saint Petersburg . Her father, Leon Trakiner, owned a factory there which was involved in the manufacture of glass products. The younger brother of Algirdas was the painter Augustinas Savickas (1919–2012), later also an art critic, university professor and author.

Life

Algirdas with his father Jurgis Savickis , around 1929
Augustinas and Algirdas Savickis, around 1930
Augustinas , Jurgis and Algirdas Savickis, around 1935
Algirdas Savickis, around 1936
Algirdas Savickis, around 1940
Painting by Algirdas Savickis: Uzė Posing , around 1937

Due to his father's diplomatic activities, he was born like his younger brother in the Danish capital, grew up there for six years and, after moving, lived in the Finnish capital Helsinki from 1923 to 1927, where he went to school.

Algirdas probably developed an interest in painting very early on. His father was interested in art and, against his parents' wishes, had switched to agriculture in favor of painting. However, the outbreak of World War I forced him to drop out of his studies.

From September 1930 to December 1935, Algirdas was a student in Germany in the Free School Community in Wickersdorf near Saalfeld , which was headed by Jaap Kool at around the same time , a music-oriented reform education country house in the Thuringian Forest . At this boarding school, the 15-year-old Algirdas accused his teacher Otto Peltzer of sexual abuse at the beginning of 1933 . He was not alone in this; His schoolmate Arnold Ernst Fanck (1919–1994), son of the well-known German film director Arnold Fanck , also made the same accusation against Peltzer a few months later, and in autumn 1933 also Grete Oesterreich from Falkenstein in Vogtland , the mother of the FSG students Eckart (* 1921) and Lothar Oesterreich (* 1918). The former student Hans-Heinz Sanden (1914–2003), who was a boarding school student in Wickersdorf from 1928 to 1932, a nephew of the local politician Bruno Asch and son of his brother Hans , recalled in his autobiography, published in 1990, the “ Eros Paidekos , the one in this School was much homage ”, specifically sexual assaults by Peltzer and other teachers.

In 1935 the parents of Algirdas divorced; his younger brother Augustinas therefore returned to Kaunas with his mother. After graduating from high school , Algirdas studied English in Germany and Switzerland; another source gives England as the place to study. In 1938 he moved to live with his mother in Kaunas, Lithuania, where he married a Jewish girl named Julija and adopted her baby Regina. From 1938 to 1940 he studied painting with Professor Justinas Vienožinski at the Lithuanian art school Kauno meno mokyklą (KMM) and in 1940 worked at Kaunas University . During this time his mother lived in France and Belgium, his younger brother Augustinas studied sociology at the University of Geneva in 1939/40 .

On August 3, 1940, Lithuania became Soviet. During the German-Soviet War in June and July 1941, Lithuania was occupied by the German Wehrmacht . Shortly afterwards, thousands of Jews were killed in pogroms there by task forces of the security police and the SD as well as by Lithuanian volunteers and so-called protection teams (SchuMa). In this environment, his younger brother Augustinas managed to flee to the Soviet Union. Because of their Jewish origins, his mother Ida and Algirdas' young wife had to go to the ghetto established by the Germans to chew. Relatives and friends tried to convince Algirdas not to move into the ghetto voluntarily. Since he was considered a “ first-degree Jewish mixed race ” or a “ half-Jew ”, he did not have to move to the ghetto. However, under no circumstances did Algirdas want to leave his relatives there alone. Julija's sick sister and her mother were also in the ghetto.

One day the young couple was selected for execution ; on the way there, Algirdas carried the baby in his arms. His wife tried to convince the guards that they were Lithuanian and showed Algirdas' Lithuanian passport. A guard eventually showed sympathy or insight and enabled them to secretly return to the ghetto after waiting until nightfall in an underground sewer.

Algirdas did forced labor, mostly at military locations outside the city, and had to wear the yellow star on his clothing. Food rations were allocated for work, but these were clearly too small to ensure the survival of the forced laborers and, above all, of their relatives in the ghetto. Therefore, the ghetto residents sold their belongings to buy groceries. However, this forced them to smuggle food into the ghetto forbidden. In order to be able to visit his relatives outside the ghetto, to receive food from them for his family and to learn news about the course of the war, Algirdas temporarily removed the yellow star from his clothing. From August 1942, the controls at the ghetto entrances were considerably increased in order to prevent the possession of cash and to prevent food smuggling into the ghetto. Around this time, Algirdas was beaten and kicked by the guards when he was searched on his return to the ghetto.

Despite countless humiliations and humiliations, Algirdas stayed with his family in the ghetto to assist them. Repeated attempts by his relatives and friends to persuade him to leave family members were unsuccessful. On the evening of October 1, 1943, Algirdas was on their way home with his wife when they were stopped and questioned by a guard in the ghetto. Algirdas patiently replied that he was coming home from work with his wife and wanted to go back to the ghetto. The guard named Kučinskas looked Julija in the face and pulled her arm towards him. Thereupon Algirdas rolled an arm behind the guard and called to his wife to run away in zigzag lines, because he obviously expected targeted shots, and to get help. After a while, from a greater distance, she heard a shot. When she returned a little later with helpers, Algirdas was in his blood. The guard did not allow any assistance and left him bleeding to death for more than two hours.

Algirdas Savickis died at the age of 26 and was buried in the Vilijampolė (Slabodka) ghetto cemetery with great sympathy from the ghetto residents. Algirdas' wife Julija and his adopted daughter Regina were taken to the Stutthof concentration camp after the ghetto was dissolved shortly afterwards , where they received support from the Lithuanian author Balys Sruoga and survived. Algirdas' mother, Ida Trakiner-Savickienė, died of suicide in 1944.

exhibition

  • On the occasion of the 100th birthday of Algirdas Savickis, a painting exhibition was held in the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, from February 13 to May 21, 2017. Works by Jurgis Savickis, his sons Algirdas and Augustinas as well as his grandson Raimondas Savickas and his great-granddaughter Ramunė Savikaitė-Meškėlienė were shown.

Web links

Commons : Algirdas Savickis  - Collection of Images

References and footnotes

  1. ↑ Skaityti Daugiau: Augustinas Savickas . In: daile.lt, on: daile.lt
  2. ↑ N. Adomonytė: Augustinas Savickas. In: Vilniaus Aukcionas, on: menorinka.lt
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g Elena Baliuytė: Forms of Self-Awareness in Lithuanian Documentary Literature . In: Mindaugas Kvietkauskas (Ed.): Transitions of Lithuanian Postmodernism: Lithuanian Literature in the Post-Soviet Period . Edition Rodopi, Amsterdam 2011, ISBN 978-9-0420-3441-9 , pp. 228-230
  4. ↑ Aurelija Pociutė: Jurgis Savickis . In: Bernardinai.lt, on: bernardinai.lt
  5. ↑ Aras Lukšas: Kilnios sielos aristokratas . In: Lietuvos žinios, on: lzinios.lt
  6. ↑ Peter Dudek: “You are and will remain the old abstract ideologue!” The reform pedagogue Gustav Wyneken (1875–1964) - A biography . Verlag Julius Klinkhardt, Bad Heilbrunn 2017. ISBN 978-3-7815-2176-6 , p. 333 (116)
  7. ↑ Student directory of the Free School Community Wickersdorf. In: Archives of the German youth movement , Ludwigstein Castle near Witzenhausen in Hesse
  8. ↑ Peter Dudek : “Everything is a good average”? Impressions of the student body of the FSG Wickersdorf 1906–1945 . In: JHB 23 - Yearbook for Historical Educational Research 2017 . Julius Klinkhardt, Bad Heilbrunn 2018, ISBN 978-3-7815-2237-4 , pp. 234–279 (citation: p. 236)
  9. ↑ Algirdas Savickis added to his accusation: “I broke my word of honor because I was Dr. Peltzer had previously given my word of honor to remain silent on the matter. Now I have nothing more to do with Dr. Peltzer to do. We both fell out. I am surprised that Dr. Peltzer cultivated love affairs with other of my comrades (sic!) ”. Thuringian Main State Archive Weimar Signature B 3465/215; Quoted from: Peter Dudek: “You are and will remain the old abstract ideologue!” The reform pedagogue Gustav Wyneken (1875–1964) - A biography . Verlag Julius Klinkhardt, Bad Heilbrunn 2017, ISBN 978-3-7815-2176-6 , p. 333
  10. ↑ Peter Dudek: “You are and will remain the old abstract ideologue!” The reform pedagogue Gustav Wyneken (1875–1964) - A biography . Verlag Julius Klinkhardt, Bad Heilbrunn 2017, ISBN 978-3-7815-2176-6 , p. 332
  11. ↑ Peter Dudek: "The Oedipus from Kurfürstendamm - A Wickersdorfer student and his mother murder 1930" . Publishing house Julius Klinkhardt, Bad Heilbrunn 2015, ISBN 978-3-7815-2026-4 , pp. 41-42
  12. ↑ Peter Dudek: "Experimental field for a new youth". The Free School Community of Wickersdorf 1906–1945 . Julius Klinkhardt, Bad Heilbrunn 2009, ISBN 978-3-7815-1681-6 , pp. 396-398
  13. ^ Gesellschaft für Exilforschung / Society for Exile Studies (Hrsg.): Newsletter / Newsletter: 1984 to 1993 with complete register . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-1109-5910-9 , p. 214
  14. ↑ Lucas Lchtenberg: Mij ​​krijgen ze niet levend. De zelfmoorden van mei 1940 . Uitgeverij Balans, Amsterdam 2017, ISBN 978-9-4600-3955-3 , chapter 13
  15. ↑ Hans-Heinz Sanden: The flaw. A youth between races and classes . Universitas Verlag, Munich 1990. ISBN 978-3-8004-1225-9 , p. 81
  16. ↑ Volker Kluge: Otto the Strange . Parthas-Verlag, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-932529-74-X , chapter 3
  17. ↑ Dr. oec. publ. On June 22, 1935, Otto Peltzer became one of the second major criminal chamber of the Berlin Regional Court for crimes against Section 176 No. 3 RStGB in two cases, for a crime against Section 174 No. 1 RStGB and for an offense against Section 175 RStGB Sentenced to one year and six months in prison. On September 14, 1935, a decision was made to withdraw his doctorate. Quoted from: Stefanie Harrecker: Degradierte Do Doctors - The revocation of the doctorate at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich during the Nazi era . Herbert Utz Verlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-8316-0691-7 , pp. 337-340
  18. ↑ a b c d e f g Danutė Selčinskaja: Algirdas Savickis (1917–1943) . In: Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum, at: jmuseum.lt
  19. ↑ Tapybos poetui Augustinui Savickui - 100 , on: lituanistusamburis.lt
  20. ↑ A. Gumbaragis: Pasakyk man dar vieną žodelį ( Speak Just One More Word. Julija Savickienė's story ). In: Švyturys, No. 8 (1963), p. 21
  21. ↑ Kartos ir Likimai , on: savickogalerija.lt
  22. ↑ Generations and Destinies . In: Lietuvos žydų (Litvaku) bendruomenė, on: lzb.lt
  23. ↑ Monika Petrulienė: Vienoje parodoje - keturių šeimos kartų kūryba . In: LRT TV naujienų tarnyba, February 14, 2017, on: lrt.lt
personal data
SURNAME Savickis, Algirdas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Savickio, Algirdo; Sawicki, Algirdas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Lithuanian painter
DATE OF BIRTH September 10, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH Copenhagen , Denmark
DATE OF DEATH October 1, 1943
Place of death Ghetto Kauen , Kaunas , Lithuania General District , Reichskommissariat Ostland