eventually signed a request to the French camp authorities to be returned to Germany. On the train ride from Saint-Cyprien to Germany, he managed to escape and settled with Felka in occupied Belgium, and they began a life in hiding. Without residency papers, Nussbaum had no way of earning an income, but friends provided him with shelter and art supplies so that he could continue his craft. In 1943 he painted the Self Portrait with a Jewish identity card. In the painting there is a tree (Nussbaum translates into Nuttree in English) whose branches are cut, with one branch bearing blossoms. In 1944, the Nussbaum family was greatly impacted by the plans of Nazi Germany; Philipp and Rahel Nussbaum were killed at Auschwitz in February, and in July Nussbaum and his wife were found hiding in an attic by German armed forces. They were arrested, sent to the Mechelen transit camp and given the numbers XXVI/284 and XXVI/285. On 2 August, they arrived at Auschwitz, and a week later, Felix was murdered at the age of 39. On 3 September, Nussbaum's brother was sent to Auschwitz, and on 6 September his sister-in-law and niece were also murdered there. In December, his brother – the last of the family – died from exhaustion in the camp at Stutthof. Within one year, the entire Nussbaum family had been murdered. Major works In this time period, Nussbaum created two of his best-known works: Self Portrait with Jewish Identity Card (1943), and Triumph of Death (1944). Triumph of Death Triumph of Death shows Nussbaum's attention to detail. According to his biography, Felix Nussbaum: Art Defamed; Art in Exile; Art in Resistance, the crumpled music score has the first several bars of "The Lambeth Walk", a popular song from the musical Me and My Girl. The words that would normally accompany the music are "Ev'rythin' free and easy / Do as you darn well please". Selected paintings Legacy Felix Nussbaum's artwork reflects and interprets his experiences as a victim of the Holocaust. In 1998, the Felix Nussbaum Haus in Osnabrück opened to permanently exhibit his works. He was featured alongside fellow concentration camp survivors and artists Jan Komski and Dinah Gottliebova in the 1999 documentary film Eyewitness, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject. Art and Remembrance: The Legacy of Felix Nussbaum is a 1993 documentary directed by Barbara Pfeffer. References