Language:
English
Year of publication:
1998
Titel der Quelle:
American Jewish History
Angaben zur Quelle:
86,4 (1998) 419-440
Keywords:
Shahn, Ben,
;
St. Louis (Ship)
;
Jewish refugees
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Influence
;
Jewish art
Abstract:
Discusses a 1941 mural painted by the Jewish Russian-born American Ben Shahn, in which the artist celebrated American freedoms, relating them to the Bill of Rights and the First Amendment to the Constitution. Aspects of Shahn's personal and social background and of contemporary events make it clear that his mural was a powerful, albeit indirect, criticism of the failure of the Roosevelt-led U.S. government - specifically in regard to the SS "St. Louis" and, generally, in regard to American immigration policy - that, partly due to antisemitism, in the pre- and early war years refused to provide a haven for immigrants, especially those attempting to flee Nazi-controlled territory.
Note:
Appeared also in "Complex Identities" (2001) 162-181.
URL:
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