Frank Meisler

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Frank Meisler (December 2012)

Frank Meisler (* 1925 in Danzig , Free City of Danzig ; † March 24, 2018 in Jaffa ) was a German - British - Israeli architect and sculptor .

Life

Frank Meisler grew up in Danzig, which had been separated from the German Reich as a free state since 1919. His father ran a small transport business, which he had to relocate to the other side of the border, to Poland, under anti-Semitic pressure from the National Socialists . At the end of August 1939, his parents and 14 other Jewish children were able to enable him to escape on the last of the three child transports from Danzig. The three-day train journey was accompanied by a member of the Jewish community and a Gestapo policeman on the German route and ran via Berlin-Friedrichstrasse to Hoek van Holland and from there to Liverpool Street Station in London . His parents were arrested three days after his departure, later deported to the Warsaw ghetto and murdered in the Auschwitz concentration camp . His mother's two sisters and his grandmother lived in London, and they had fled Germany a few years earlier. Frank Meisler grew up here. He learned nothing more from his parents, the information circulating in Great Britain about the situation in the concentration camps and about the extermination of the Jews led the youth to come to the bitter realization that he was an orphan (“I'm an orphan”).

After the end of World War II , Meisler studied architecture at Manchester University . After graduating, he was involved in the construction of Heathrow Airport , among other things . In 1956 he moved to Israel , where he settled in the old city of Jaffa and also ran a sculpture studio. In addition to Jaffa, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Meisler's works can be found in New York , Moscow , San Juan (Argentina) , Gdansk, London and Berlin . His sculptures are in public space . The personal experience of the transport of children led Meisler to finally create impressive bronze sculptures on this subject .

Meisler died on March 24, 2018 in Jaffa. His grave is in the Givat Brenner cemetery .

Awards

Unveiling of the memorial plaque by Paweł Adamowicz and members of the Meisler family (2018)

Works (selection)

Architecture and art in general

Memorial in Jantarny
Torah shrine of the Golden Rosen Synagogue, Dnipro
Sculpture in Stratford upon Avon

Sculpture groups for the Kindertransport

Meisler's groups of sculptures, created from personal experience, show similarities as well as different design details and have meanwhile become the European “route” of the Kindertransporte.

Publications

  • On the Vistula Facing East. German, London 1996, ISBN 0-233-99022-4 .
  • Miłosława Borzyszkowska-Szewczyk (Ed.): Zaułkami pamięci. Gdańsk - Londyn - Jaffa. trans. into Polish v. Agata Teperek et al. Andrzej Szewczyk. Instytut Kaszubski, Gdańsk 2014, ISBN 978-83-63368-40-1 .
  • Miłosława Borzyszkowska-Szewczyk, Uwe Neumärker (ed.): On the Vistula towards the east. My life between Gdansk, London and Jaffa . Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe with the Instytut Kaszubski w Gdańsku, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-942240-24-6 .

Web links

Commons : Frank Meisler  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Frank Meisler, Interview, BBC, June 26, 2013.
  2. ^ Sculptor Frank Meisler has died. In: Berliner Zeitung . March 27, 2018, p. 13.
  3. ^ Mourning for Frank Meisler. In: Jüdische Allgemeine. March 25, 2018. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
  4. Biography on the homepage ( Memento from January 10, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  5. Message  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the website of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Tel Aviv (Hebrew)@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.tel-aviv.diplo.de  
  6. Honorowi Ambasadorowie Gdańska - Wybrzeze24.pl. Retrieved March 30, 2018 (pl-PL).
  7. Przejrzyście i czytelnie - nowy system tablic pamiątkowych. Retrieved February 3, 2019 (pl-PL).
  8. ^ The occasion was the 5th world meeting of the Danzigers.
  9. Craig A. Spiegel: Returning 'home' after fleeing on the Kindertransport. In: Cleveland Jewish News. August 14, 2009 (English).
  10. 3 pictures from the sculpture group in Gdańsk
  11. ^ Foundation Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe: »On the Vistula towards the East. My life between Danzig, London and Jaffa «by Frank Meisler - reading with Alexander Beyer on December 8, 2016. Accessed on May 11, 2017.