Yosef Schlesinger

Schlesinger (Yosef Schlesinger) was born on August 20, 1919, in Brno, then Czechoslovakia, now the Czech Republic. He was the son of Louis, born in 1884, and Elsa nee Gruen, born in 1892.

In 1938, Schlesinger moved to Prague (Praha), where he studied at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design (Vysoká škola uměleckoprůmyslová v Praze).

In March 1939, after the German invasion and occupation of Czechoslovakia, the Schlesinger family moved to Kaunas, Lithuania. In Kaunas, his father Louis established a textile factory. Yosef continued his studies at the Kaunas Art School (Kauno Meno Mokykla). During his studies, he married Sara nee Segal.

In June 1941, the family was imprisoned in the ghetto, along with all the Jews of Kaunas.

In the ghetto, Yosef ran a workshop for making toys, which were sent to children in Germany.

When the members of the "Ältestenrat" (Council of Elders) began the project of documenting Jewish life in the ghetto, they turned to several artists, including Yosef Schlesinger. Together with Esther Lurie, Yaacob Liphsitz, Ben Zion [Nolik] Schmidt and others, Yosef worked in the "Painting and Drawing Workshop". Their official work was to prepare posters and signs for the Germans and to paint portraits for the SS personnel in the ghetto. Secretly, they engaged in painting and documenting life in the ghetto, understanding the historical importance of their actions.

In July 1944, the ghetto was liquidated and Yosef was sent to the Dachau concentration camp in Germany, where he worked in forced labor. On April 29, 1945, the camp was liberated by the United States Army.

Louis Schlesinger, Yosef's father, perished in an unknown location in 1944. His mother Elsa perished in February 1945.

After the war, Yosef returned to Prague and completed his studies at the Academy of Arts.

He later ran a gallery in the city center and exhibited in many exhibitions.

Yosef Schlesinger died in 1993 in Prague.