Peter Selz was born in Munich of Jewish parents . In 1936 , aged 17 , he fled Nazi Germany because his parents wanted to send him to study in the United States . His family managed to escape Germany just before the Crystal Night , with the help of some nuns , whom his optometrist father had treated for free . He spent one year at Columbia University and discovered that he was distantly related to Alfred Stieglitz , who became his mentor . After serving in World War II he received an A.M. from the University of Chicago on the GI Bill in 1949 . He received several Fulbright scholarships in the following years to study at the University of Paris and École du Louvre as well as the Musées Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire ; at the same time , Selz was teaching at the University of Chicago and also chaired the education department at the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago . In 1955 he moved to Pomona College to chair the art department and serve as director of the school 's art gallery
Crystal Night
Kristallnacht
Peter Selz