Author: Jakub Markiel (1911-2008)
Artist from the circle of Ecole de Paris
Title: Portrait of a girl
Year: unknown
Technique: charcoal drawing
Dimensions: 38.5 x 56 cm (sheet)
Signature: handwritten l.d.: Markiel
Jakub Markiel was born on July 20, 1911 in Lodz, Poland. When he was a child his mother discovered artistic talent in him and sent him to private drawing lessons. In the early 1930s he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow. In 1933 he received a scholarship and moved to Paris, where he lived and studied until the outbreak of war and the German occupation.
In 1943, his Jewish origins were discovered, and as a result he was arrested and sent to the Drancy camp. On June 25, 1943, he was brought in Reich Main Security Office (RSHA) transport No. 55 to Auschwitz. During registration at the camp, he was given the number 126,105. Probably the day after his arrival, he was sent to the Jawischowitz sub-camp and forced to work in the Brzeszcze mine.
In the sub-camp Jakub Markiel revealed his artistic abilities. In 1944, on orders from the Jawischowitz manager, he decorated the corridors of four newly built blocks with drawings, and also made two figures that were placed inside the sub-camp on either side of the entrance gate.
Jakub Markiel also made portraits for SS men and kapos and, secretly, for prisoners.
On the night of January 18-19, 1945, during the final evacuation of Auschwitz Concentration Camp, Jakub Markiel was forced to march with the remaining prisoners of the Jawischowitz sub-camp to Wodzisław Śląski, more than 50 kilometers away. On January 22, he was brought to Buchenwald concentration camp.
