Art and Identity behind the Wire
A study of identity and art in Hutchinson Internment Campon the Isle of Man during the Second World War.
Babbe van der Veer #10167250
babbevanderveer1@gmail.com Supervisor: Miriam van Rijsingen Second reader: Gregor Langfeld 23 June 2016
MA thesis: Kunst- en cultuurwetenschappen: Kunstgeschiedenis University of Amsterdam
2
For my father,
Anton van der Veer
3
Index
Introduction….………..………...4
Chapter 1. Necessity..………....11
Chapter 2. Community………..20
Chapter 3. Individuality……….36
3.1 Hellmuth Weissenborn………..36
3.2 Kurt Schwitters………..43
3.3 Fred Uhlman………..50
Conclusion……….59
Literature………...63
Archive material………66
List of Illustrations….………...68
Cover illustration: Kahn, Erich. Untitled (Illustration for poem ‘Barbed Lyric’). 1940. Wax stencil print.
4
Introduction
Art cannot live behind barbed wire […], the tensions under which we exist here, the sense of grievous injustice done to us, […] prevent all work and creativity […].1
At the beginning of the Second World War, there were around 80,000 potential enemy aliens residing in Britain.2 Most of them were refugees who were persecuted by Hitler on racial, religious or political grounds. Britain had accepted many artists whose work had been deemed ‘degenerate’ by the Nazis, and were therefore not able to continue their work in their home country. However, when war broke out, many refugees were considered a potential danger to Britain, as they could be traitors or spies. For this reason all men and women from German and Austrian descent residing in Great Britain had to appear before tribunals. They were put in one of three classes: Class A, people who formed a high security risk and were
immediately interned; Class B, doubtful cases, the people in this category were supervised and subject to certain restrictions; Class C, people considered to be no security risk and were therefore left at liberty.3
When the war progressed and battle was roaring in The Netherlands and Belgium, the British government started a new phase in their internment policy. Increasing numbers of people of German and Austrian descent were interned. First only those who lived near the coast, later everybody classified as Class B. In mid-June 1940, after the failure of the Norwegian campaign and the surrender of France, internment of German and Austrian men became general. Fear of potential ‘fifth columnists’ had struck Britain and the media were campaigning in favour of wholesale internment.4 Many men were arrested without warning in
1 Quote from a letter published in The New Statesman and Nation. 28 August 1940. Drafted and signed by sixteen artists held in Hutchinson Internment Camp. Among the artists were Kurt Schwitters, Erich Kahn, Hellmuth Weissenborn and Hermann Fechenbach.
2 ‘Enemy aliens’ is a term in customary international law that was used by the British government and the British media to highlight the potential threat that immigrants from Germany, Austria and later Italy posed to the United Kingdom. Many British people were afraid that the influx of immigrants would bring fifth columnists who wanted to attack Britain from the inside. For further discussion of the use of this term and its significance in Britain during the Second World War, see Lafitte, 1940. 3 Lafitte, 1940: p. 37. Class A consisted of just under 600 people, Class B consisted of roughly 6,500 people and Class C contained more than 55,000 people.
5 their own homes and taken to transit camps, where living conditions were often terrible.5 After the transit camps they were either shipped to Canada or Australia to be interned, or they were transported to camps on British ground.
Most internees were held in camps on the Isle of Man, where boarding houses at popular holiday spots were transformed into internment camps. Many of these boarding houses had served the same purpose during the First World War. The largest camp on the Isle of Man was Hutchinson Internment Camp at Douglas, holding around 1200 internees at its height. Hutchinson Camp opened its doors on July 13th, 1940 and closed in March 1944, however, the majority of internees were released within 18 months of their internment.6 This camp was famous for holding large numbers of artists and people in the creative and
academic field. Only a few days after the opening of the camp, the internees set up a ‘Cultural Department’, this department organized lectures, courses and later on even art exhibitions. The camp university was a great success and some lectures were attended by hundreds of people. The large quantity of lectures initially resulted in a lack of space, which supposedly led to philosophy professors correcting each other on the spot.7 Klaus Ernst Hinrichsen, art historian and internee in Hutchinson camp, described it as a ‘Greek gymnasium’, rather than a square in an internment camp in Douglas.8 It was truly a unique surrounding where a great abundance of artworks was created by professional artists and amateurs alike.9
Even though most internees tried to make the best of their time at the camp, there were many unavoidable hardships. The fear of Britain being invaded by the Nazis, the uncertain future and the absence of their family and friends caused anxiety and depression among the internees. One of the more individual struggles was the ambivalence about one’s personal identity, as German or Austrian, as Englishman or alien, as artist or internee. One way to examine this question of identity is to analyse the creative output of theartists who were interned. An artist’s identity is formed by different aspects, such as ethnicity, heritage, artistic career, or in this case living in captivity and being judged as an ‘enemy alien’. All of these
5 These transit camps were often make-shift camps, set up at old cotton mills, race courses or even animal shelters belonging to a zoo. Stent interview, 2000: 2/3.
6 Internees could be released on several grounds. For instance, they were given the opportunity to enlist in the pioneer corps, if they were accepted they would be released. Internees of certain professions beneficial to the war effort were also released early, such as doctors and engineers. Hinrichsen, 1993: p. 198, Stent interview, 2000: 2/3.
7 Hinrichsen interview, 1978: 3/9.
8 Hinrichsen, December 1940. TGA 20052/2/6/10.
9 There were other camps where artistic communities existed as well, such as Onchan Camp, where writer and gallery owner Jack Bilbo was a driving force behind the art created in the camp. However, the artistic endeavors of the other camps were not as extensive and well documented as those in Hutchinson Camp. For this reason this thesis will focus only on Hutchinson Camp.
6 form, but at the same time question, the artist’s identity. This leads us to the question: what can an analysis of the artworks and the production thereof in Hutchinson Internment Camp tell us about the conflict of identity of the artists at the time of their captivity?
To map out how conflicts of identity are being addressed in art made by internees, there needs to be a clear picture of the art produced in the camp. However, it’s not merely the final product that can tell us something about the artists’ identities, the context in which the art was created and how this context was in turn reflected in the final product is also very relevant. Therefore, I will first look at the necessity of making art. The way the artists creatively used and invented new materials tells us something about the will to make art and the importance of it in their lives in the camp. Secondly, when discussing identity, a group identity can be just as valuable as individual identity, therefore it’s essential to look at the emergence of the artistic community in the camp, a community where ideas and feelings were shared, and where artists inspired and encouraged each other. And thirdly, I will discuss individual styles, with the main focus on three artists: Hellmuth Weissenborn, Kurt Schwitters and Fred Uhlman. These artists had very distinctive styles and approaches to art and therefore they are an excellent representation of the diversity in styles and forms of art made in the camp.
A wide array of sources must be used to conduct proper research on the topics mentioned above. For this research, primary sources were very valuable, because the available literature proved to be not always sufficient. Important primary sources for this research were artworks made in Hutchinson Internment Camp during the Second World War, preserved and collected by multiple museums such as the Imperial War Museum (IWM) and the British Museum in London. Even though the artworks are currently not at display in either of the museums, they are accessible for viewing on request. Appointments with the art
department at the IWM and the prints and drawings department at the British Museum proved very interesting and valuable for my research, as I was able to view original artworks and ask questions about the works and the collection. Besides works of art, the Imperial War Museum also possesses photographs, original camp documents, camp journals and personal papers of former internees at Hutchinson Camp. These primary sources form an important foundation for this thesis, they function as a source of information and as a tool to look more critically at secondary sources and really form my own views and opinions on the subject.
Publications about internment in the United Kingdom during the Second World War are quite scarce. An even smaller volume of work is dedicated to artistic expression in the internment camps.During the war, two publications were written about internment: an
7 anonymous work called Anderson’s Prisoners and the book The Internment of Aliens by François Lafitte. In 1940, François Lafitte was commissioned by Penguin Books to write a Special about the refugee crisis and the process of internment in Great Britain.10 The book was written and published in only a few months time and contained sharp criticism of the government’s internment policy. However, Lafitte did not have access to many official government documents about the issue, so several parts of the book rely heavily on Lafitte’s own interpretation of the problem. Even so, this book is an important guide to the British internment process in 1940 and the public debate that existed around it.
After the war, it took several years before the topic of internment in Britain was finally revisited. In 1960, Fred Uhlman, prominent artist and internee at Hutchinson camp, published his autobiography The Making of an Englishman. Uhlman was arrested and
interned in June 1940 and released on December 31st of the same year. In his autobiography a complete chapter is dedicated to his stay in Hutchinson Camp. It addresses art and artists in the camp, as well as his own artistic endeavours. The chapter about his internment is largely based on a diary he kept during that period. The diary itself was never published but a copy of it can be found in the archive of the IWM in London. Uhlman did not revisit the topic of his internment until the late seventies, when he translated his internment diary, which was originally written in German, in English and he was interviewed by the IWM about his life and his period of internment.11
The interviews conducted by the IWM were part of a larger period of interest in the topic of internment in Britain during the Second World War. In 1978, the IWM interviewed many former internees, among them artists who were held in Hutchinson. Simultaneously, former internee and historian Ronald Stent, was working on a book about his life and his internment in the camp, which he would publish in 1980. In the process of writing his book, Stent visited fellow former internees and interviewed them. His book is not so much a factual representation of internment, but rather a personal account created from his own memory and that of fellow ex-internees. Because of this, the book includes a great deal of hindsight. This is also the case with the interviews conducted by the IWM. Even though these are eyewitness accounts of what happened during internment, it must be considered that the interviews were
10 In 1937, Penguin books introduced a new series called ‘Penguin Specials’. Specials were short books discussing current political issues. Lafitte’s book was part of this series of Specials.
11 The translation of his diary was never published either, but can be found in the private papers of Dr. F. Uhlman, now part of the collection of the Imperial War Museum, London, Cat. No.:
8 held almost 40 years later, and many of the interviewees were already of old age.12 We must be careful with drawing conclusions from these accounts, but at the same time they are valuable records of life at the camp and the emotions that were paired with it.13
A big issue when researching internment in Britain during the Second World War is getting the right information. Most of the official documents surrounding the topic were destroyed or remained secret for a long time. The 1967 adjustment of the British Public Records Act made it possible to view former secret documents that were at least 30 years old, which meant that in the seventies, the documents concerning internment should have been accessible for research. Peter and Lenny Gillman took this opportunity to write their book
‘Collar the lot!’ how Britain interned and expelled its wartime refugees, which they published
in 1980.14 In the introduction of the book they discuss the process of acquiring the right documents for their research. It turned out to be very difficult to access certain government documents due to exceptions on the Public Records Act, therefore the authors still had to rely on many secondary sources and eyewitness accounts. While researching Hutchinson Camp, I noticed as well that many documents are hard to find. Some were apparently lost or destroyed and others were difficult to access because they were once incorrectly labelled or not yet organized, let alone digitalized. As for artworks, interned artists were usually not allowed to take their art with them when they left the camp. Apart from the artworks that are now part of museum collections, I suspect that many works were either destroyed or, on the rare occasion when an internee was allowed to take his work, reside in the collections of family members of ex-internees.15
12 Most of the interviews were conducted in 1978. The interview of Ronald Stent is an exception, as it was conducted in 2000 in cooperation with BBC Radio 4.
13 The interviews and their use as sources for academic research are part of a larger field of discussion about oral history, memory and historiography in general. This discussion has been taking place among historians and art historians for more than three decades. (See: Grele, Ronald J. Envelopes of
Sound: The Art of Oral History. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group,1985; Perks, Robert ed.,
Thomson, Alistair ed. The Oral History Reader. London: Routledge, 1998; Thomson, Alistair. ‘Four Paradigm Transformations in Oral History.’ In: Oral History Review, Vol. 34, No. 1 (2007): p. 49-70). I do not intend to formally contribute to this discussion in this thesis, however in my opinion, the interviews conducted by the IWM are valuable sources of information, but they must be handled carefully. Any conclusions drawn from these interviews must be compared to other sources and available literature before being perceived as factual.
14 Gillman, Gillman, 1980.
15 Fred Uhlman was one of the exceptions, he was allowed to take his work with him on release. He writes about this in the post scriptum to his translation of his internment diary, part of private papers of Dr. F. Uhlman, IWM Documents.6781. Apparently the camp commander at that time commented on his works: “Rather bad taste, Mr. Uhlman”, but Uhlman was allowed to take them anyway. After Uhlman’s death, his work was donated by his family to several museums in the United Kingdom and Germany.
9 In 1993, Tony Kushner and David Cesarani revisited the topic of internment and the issues around researching it. They edited a book with many essays on internment in Britain in both world wars, including a very important essay by Klaus Hinrichsen, the interned art historian mentioned earlier. His essay ‘Visual Art behind the Wire’ is not only an excellent description of the camp and the art that was created there, but also an important motivation for further research of art and culture in Hutchinson Camp.16 Several essays and books on the topic appeared in the years following the publication of Hinrichsen’s essay, almost all
referencing or analysing Hinrichsen’s text.17 There was even a new interest for some of the artists that were interned, such as Kurt Schwitters and Fred Uhlman.
Of course there had already been a lot of interest in Kurt Schwitters’ work, but it was not until well into the twenty-first century that his work made in Britain and during his
internment was paid proper attention to. The 2013 exhibition Schwitters in Britain, held at the Tate Britain in London and the Sprengel Museum in Hannover, highlighted Schwitters’ period of internment, dedicating a room to his flight from Norway and his stay in Hutchinson Camp. The exhibition catalogue included an essay by Jennifer Powell, dedicated to
Schwitters’ time in Hutchinson and the artworks he produced there. Other essays in the catalogue mentioned his stay in Hutchinson as well, something that isn’t always brought up in writings about Schwitters. In Megan R. Luke’s book Kurt Schwitters: Space, Image, Exile, published in 2014, Schwitters’ period of internment is only discussed in a few pages and the works he made during that period are not further elaborated on, which is peculiar since the book is about Schwitters’ period of exile. Admittedly, research into Schwitters’ artistic endeavours in the camp is not easy. There are many contradicting sources about the art he made and exhibited during his internment and how it was received. Even in the catalogue raisonné of his work there is no clear illustrated list of works he made during this period. In 2009 a book was published about Fred Uhlman.18 The work he made during his internment is addressed in multiple essays in the book. The works are very well researched and subjected to a proper art historical research. This is also the case in Anna Müller-Härlin’s essay ‘Fred Uhlman’s Internment Drawings’, published in 2005. Both publications were
16 Klaus Hinrichsen’s essay ‘Visual Art Behind the Wire’ was previously published in the journal
Immigrants & Minorities: Historical Studies in Ethnicity, Migration and Diaspora, Vol. 11 No. 3
(1992): p. 188-209. The essay was an adaptation of the previously written essay: Hinrichsen, Klaus E. ‘19 Hutchinson Square, Douglas, Isle of Man: Kurt Schwitters Interniert in England 1940/41.’ In: Kurt
Schwitters Almanach. No. 8 (1989): p. 93-128.
17 For example: Vinzent, J. 2003; Behr, S. 2005; Steyn, J. 2009; Dickson, R., McDougall, S., Smalley, U. 2012.
10 among the first of their kind to describe Uhlman’s internment art as simply ‘art’, put into a broader framework of the artist’s oeuvre and artistic development. They play an important role in art historical research on British internment art. The publications elevate the subject to an art historical one, as opposed to a solely historical one.
Another very important article is Jutta Vinzent’s essay ‘Aesthetics of Internment Art in Britain During the Second World War’, published in 2003. She writes a comprehensive text about the art and artists in several internment camps, with an extensive account on
Hutchinson Camp. For her essay, Vinzent consulted Hinrichsen. She discusses the art made in Hutchinson in depth and in her conclusion, she labels the art as ‘internment art’. She justifies this by explaining that the majority of works made in internment were in many ways, such as style, purpose and techniques, reflections of the situation the internees were in. And although I agree with many of her findings, I do not think it is appropriate to label this art as only ‘internment art’. By labelling it this way, she is limiting the way it can be researched and viewed by academics and the public.
Even though Hinrichsen’s and Vinzent’s essays were great inspirations to many academics, they have also caused a repetition of information and a standard way in which internment art is described and researched. I am not claiming that my research will reveal entirely new facts and insights, but in my thesis I will look critically at the available sources and literature to create a comprehensive reassessment of art in relation to identity of the artists interned in Hutchinson Camp. In my thesis, I hope to create a new and deeper understanding of the artists, their artistic motives, their identities and the importance of art in the camp. It is valuable to reconsider this subject and to successively open a discussion about the
(art)historical significance of the period, the circumstances, the interned artists and the art created in Hutchinson Internment Camp.
11
1.
Necessity
A new art form, built from necessity. 19
- Klaus Hinrichsen, 1987
On arrival at Hutchinson Camp, the internees encountered a square surrounded by forty-five similar looking boarding houses. The windows of the houses were painted blue and the light bulbs were red. This was to secure a total black out, to limit the risk of possible air strikes. “Thus”, as Klaus Hinrichsen describes it, “during the day the internees lived in a fish bowl and at night in a brothel”.20 One of the first acts of defiance by the internees was of artistic nature. Hellmuth Weissenborn, artist and former professor at the Academy of Leipzig, took a razorblade and started to carve figures into the blue painted windows. He carved zodiac signs and mythological scenes, featuring the goddess Artemis and centaurs. He also carved the windows of other houses in the camp, for instance, he carved scenes from the Torah for a house that harboured mainly Orthodox Jews.21 Other internees followed his lead and soon many of the boarding houses were decorated with window carvings made with nails, knives and razorblades.22 Former animal trapper and lion tamer Mr. Neunzer carved images of animals on the windows of his house, which were beloved among many of the internees and celebrated by Hinrichsen in an essay he wrote for the camp journal [fig. 1].23
The window carvings are an excellent example of the creative way the internees produced artworks in the camp. During the first few months of internment at Hutchinson camp, materials were scarce. There was almost no ink, paper or paint. Most of the items that were available, were brought by the artists themselves. Artist Fred Uhlman, for instance, had his own paper, ink and pencils, which were brought to him by his wife shortly after his arrest. Before his internment he was a painter, but the lack of painting materials urged him to
19 Hinrichsen interview, 1978: 7/9. 20 Hinrichsen, 1993: p. 190.
21 Hinrichsen, 1993: p. 191; Stent, 1980: p. 159; Weissenborn interview, 1978: 3/4. 22 Hinrichsen, 17 November 1940. TGA 20052/2/6/5
23 Hinrichsen, 17 November 1940. TGA 20052/2/6/5; Uhlman, 1960: p. 230.
In his essay in the camp journal, Hinrichsen refers to the animal trapper as Mr. Neunzer or H. Brick, in his essay ‘Visual Art Behind the Wire’ (1993) he also refers to the animal trapper as Blick. The Tate Britain Archive refers to him as ‘Blick’ Nenner. For the sake of clarity, I will only use the name Mr. Neunzer in this thesis.
12 improve his drawing skills.24 Sadly, not all artists had been able to bring their art supplies to the camp. For this reason, some interned artists developed new techniques and materials. Again, it was Weissenborn who made printing ‘ink’ by mixing crushed graphite from lead pencils with margarine.25 Linocuts were made in pieces of linoleum that were found in storage rooms or attics. Some artists, for instance Schwitters, even ripped and cut pieces of lino from the kitchen floors of the boarding houses.26 After finishing lino cuts, prints were made using a laundry mangle, which Weissenborn found in the utility room of his house [fig.2].
Weissenborn wasn’t the only artist who invented new materials and techniques. Artist Erich Kahn invented a printing technique using wax stencils.27 Painters who had access to paint used discarded ceiling panels, linoleum, deconstructed tea chests and the walls of the boarding houses as painting surfaces.28 If paint wasn’t available, it was made from crushed minerals and dyes extracted from food, mixed with the olive oil from sardine tins.29 Old pianos and pieces of furniture were destroyed, and from the wood artists made sculptures or woodcuts for prints. Sculptor Ernst Müller-Blensdorf used the side panel of a broken piano for a large woodcarving, for which he first made a sketch on the green floral wallpaper of the boarding house where he stayed.30 Some sculptors, like Paul Hamann, used clay that they supposedly dug out of the ground during trips outside the camp.31
A more unique new material was discovered by Schwitters. He collected left-over porridge from breakfast and used it to make collages and sculptures. Hinrichsen describes his encounter with Schwitters’ porridge sculpture:
“I must have been one of only half a dozen people to have seen and smelled the quivering, mouldy heaps of porridge, the left-overs from breakfast in 40 houses which he had collected in buckets. He had festooned this mess with stones, shells, matchboxes, postage stamps and objects trouvées, and foul-smelling liquids kept dripping on the beds of the room below. It was the world's first and possibly only Dadaist porridge sculpture.”32
24 Uhlman, 1960: p. 225.
25 Hinrichsen, 1993: p. 193, Weissenborn interview, 1978: 3/4. 26 Uhlman, 1960: p. 235; Stent, 1980: p. 171.
27 Müller-Härlin, 2005: p. 144. 28 Hinrichsen, 1993: p. 192. 29 Luke, 2014: p. 163.
30 Dickson, McDougall, Smalley, 2012: p. 190. 31 Midgley interview, 1978: 3/5.
13 Figure 1. Photograph of Mr. Neunzer in front of a blackout window, carved with images of animals, at Hutchinson Camp, October 1940.
Figure 2. An image of a laundry mangle found in Hutchinson Camp. Weissenborn, Hellmuth. Laundry. 1940. Linocut.
14 Fred Uhlman also witnessed Schwitters’ porridge sculptures. He remembers the colour of the porridge, it was the colour of cheese, “a ripe Danish or Roquefort”.33 Some of the porridge sculptures rested on legs made from a broken down piano.34 Schwitters also used porridge as part of collages he made in the camp. These collages closely resembled the Merz collages he made before his internment. Using bits and pieces of the camp, such as the ‘objects trouvées’ Hinrichsen describes, he created collages referencing his life at the camp. Unfortunately these works did not have a very long life-span. The porridge got mouldy and disintegrated or the collages were eaten by mice.35
Even though the technical inventions of the interned artists where the result of the lack of availability of traditional media, it still tells us something about the artists’ artistic identity. The fact that many of the artists were determined to resolve the lack of professional artistic materials shows a great necessity of creating art. This necessity can be understood first as a way of coping with their desperately frustrating environment and second as the inherent drive of an artist to create art, regardless of the circumstances. Schwitters once wrote about
Kunsttrieb (artistic drive):
“And so we come to the cause of art: it is a drive, like the drive to live, to eat, to love…. However, drives should not be considered in connection to a person’s social position or level of education. […] and because this drive has no bearing on any other development in life, we can assume as a given that the average occurrence of this artistic drive have remained the same for all ages and cultures.”36
Schwitters essentially writes that, regardless of environment and circumstances, there will always be an inner need or will to create art. The nature of the artistic practices in Hutchinson Camp would certainly serve as a compelling testimony to this theory. ‘Artistic will’ is
expressed in multiple ways, such as the way the internees overcame the lack of artistic materials by inventing new techniques. Artistic will is also expressed in the fact that art was created not only by professional artists, but also by internees who did not have any artistic training and for whom making art was a completely new endeavour.
33 Uhlman, 1960: p. 235.
34 Powell, 2013: p. 33. 35 Stent interview, 2000: 2/3.
15 The backgrounds and levels of education and professionalism of the internees were very diverse. This resulted in a blurring of social and hierarchical structures in the camp.37 Art was created by internees who had been professional artists prior to their internment, as well as internees who never had any artistic training or experience. All were encouraged to
participate. In their essay ‘Astounding and Encouraging’ about high and low art in internment camps, Dickson, McDougall and Smalley highlight the diversity of art and artists in
Hutchinson Camp. What they describe as ‘high art’: paintings, drawings and sculptures, and ‘low art’: cartoons, caricatures and commercial art such as greeting cards, magazine
illustrations and architectural designs, were all produced along side each other.38 All artistic expression was celebrated, whether by a professional artist or an amateur:
“The primitive instruments nail, knife and razor blade in the hand of artists as well as amateurs, have fullfilled [sic, SB] true works of art which have given enjoyment to others again and again.”39
Hinrichsen’s endorsement of the untrained artist as being just as proficient as the professional shows the attitude towards art in the camp. ‘True works of art’ could be created by anybody under the circumstances of internment.
In her essay about Hinrichsen, Behr connects the use of primitive instruments and the endorsement of untrained artists to the ‘central tenets of expressionism’.40 She suggests that the artistic practices were instinctual, those of a ‘child new-born seeking to discover new images within the immanence of the medium’.41 This harks back to Schwitters’ idea of a
Kunsttrieb, and while there are certainly avant-garde or expressionist elements to the artistic
life in the camp - which I will discuss later - most of the artworks were made in a more traditional academic style.
Even though there was some diversity in subject matter of the artworks made in the camp, many works are characterized by the experience of internment. First, there are works depicting the camp itself [fig. 3] and still lifes featuring scenes inside the camp, such as Weissenborn’s lithograph of a Laundry Mangle.42 Documenting the camp had multiple purposes for the internees. It served as a remembrance, something they could take with them when they left the camp, to remind themselves of the time they spent there. It could also serve
37 Dickson, McDougall, Smalley, 2012: p. 188. 38 Dickson, McDougall, Smalley, 2012: p. 187.
39 Quote from Hinrichsen, 24 November 1940, quoted in Behr, 2005: p. 19. 40 Behr, 2005: p. 19.
41 Behr, 2005: p. 20.
16 as a remembrance for other people, people outside the camp who had known little about the internment camps. The prints were a way to show the outside world under what circumstances the internees were held. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, by documenting their
surroundings, artists would make the camp their own. They depicted the home they were forced to live in and by reproducing the camp in their art, they made it part of their identity as an internee, but also as an artist.
The issue of reassurance of identity mentioned above can also be found in the
portraiture made in the camp. In some cases, portraits were meant as gifts, but there were also artists who made portraits for financial reasons. Kurt Schwitters, for instance, had a lucrative portrait business in the camp. He charged £5 for a half figure with hands, £4 for a half figure without hands and £3 for only head and shoulders.43 Schwitters only exhibited portraiture during a large art exhibition held in the camp. In the catalogue of the exhibition it said: “Place your order for your portrait!”.44 However, not all portraits were made for merely financial reasons. Many served an important role in reassuring or establishing identity. Some internees wished to be portrayed with objects referencing the life they led during or before internment. For instance, Schwitters’ portrayed Fred Uhlman with several books, alluding to his artistic and educated past, but also referencing his activities in the camp [fig. 4].
In most cases, the identity of the person portrayed was essentially one of internment.45 Some of the portraits or self-portraits featured an image of the fence surrounding the camp. For instance, artist Paul Henning depicts fellow internee and pianist Marjan Rawicz in his work Artist, very concentrated (1940). Rawicz is busy carving wood in the picture, an activity he only picked up during his internment.46 Both this work and Schwitters portrait of Uhlman, highlight that the sitters were able to pursue artistic activities while in captivity. However, the element of captivity is amplified in Henning’s work by the large barbed wire fence, which shows how paramount the identity as internee was. Even though the internees were able to spend their time on artistic activities, their identity remained an imprisoned one, rather than a strictly artistic one.47
43 Behr, 2005: p. 20-22.
44 Catalogue of the second exhibition at Hutchinson Camp, 19 November 1940. Part of private papers of Dr. F. Uhlman, IWM Documents.6781.
45 In some cases the camp officials were portrayed. This, of course, illustrated a different purpose and question of identity than the portraits made of internees.
46 Vinzent, 2003: p. 79. 47 Vinzent, 2003: p. 79, 80.
17 Figure 3. Photograph of: Henning, Paul. Hutchinson Internment Camp. 1940. Print.
Figure 4. Schwitters, Kurt. Untitled (Portrait of Figure 5. Fechenbach, Hermann. Internee. 1940.
18 Works that document the camp itself, the living circumstances and the internees, are concrete references to the state of internment. However, the most widely used motif was of a more psychological order: the barbed wire fence. Ronald Stent points out how important the barbed wire fences became as a part of the identity of the internees: “The barbed wire, the very symbol of all that we were fighting against, became an obsession, an idée fixe […]”.48 Barbed wire was used as a symbol to depict the emotional state of being interned. In Hermann Fechenbach’s work Internee (1940), the barbed wire fence takes up almost the entire image [fig. 5].49 The two figures depicted at the bottom of the work are not looking at the sky or the land behind the fence, they are looking down. They do not look further than their present state of captivity. The fence represents imprisonment causing depression and isolation.50
However, the meaning of the barbed wire fence is not always one of captivity. It could also be used to resemble hope, mostly the hope of being released and ending up on the other side of the barbed wire. A print wishing the internees a happy new year, also made by Fechenbach, shows the sun at the horizon, beyond the barbed wire [fig. 6]. The bright
sunbeams suggest an image of a bright future, a new year where the internees would perhaps all be released. Around this time, some internees had already been released, so it is not odd that this image reflects hope instead of desperation.
All of the artistic practises described in this chapter are expressions of necessity. They were means of coping with the situation the internees found themselves in. By inventing new techniques and materials, and by putting their surroundings and feelings on pieces of paper, wood, windows and linoleum, they relieved some of their distress. Jutta Vinzent argues in her essay that: “The process of creating art was in itself a form of therapy”.51 However, making art was not only a way of coping with captivity. Through art, interned artists saw a way to keep true to themselves. Despite all the obstacles, making art was a way to hold on to their identity as artists, and not be confined to an identity as prisoner. Besides the importance of establishing identity, the concept of Kunsttrieb could also explain the why the artists went through so much effort to create art. It was simply what they were bound to do whatever their circumstances. This is a different process than the necessity described above, but both
explanations are applicable to the artistic processes in the camp.
48 Stent, 1980: p. 164.
49 This image was reproduced in Vinzent, 2003: p. 81, however, in that publication it was mistakenly referred to as Paul Henning’s work, Internee, very concentrated.
50 Vinzent, 2003: p. 80. 51 Vinzent, 2003: p. 83.
19 Figure 6. Fechenbach, Hermann. Douglas Isle of Man 1941, A Happy New Year. 1940. Woodcut.
20
2.
Community
“[…] it was no easy task to mould into a bearable community such a heterogeneous lot of people, under such unusual and taxing conditions.”52
- Ronald Stent, 1980
Some internees in Hutchinson Camp kept to themselves, but most participated in the lively community that had developed over time. Some of the interned artists had previously met at meetings and activities organized by the Freier Deutscher Kulturbund (Free German League of Culture) or the Artists’ International Association (AIA).53 The Free German League of Culture was founded in the home of Fred Uhlman and was one of the largest exile
organizations in the United Kingdom. The organization existed of a cultural centre based at Uhlman’s house, where German-speaking exiles could meet and attend cultural events.54 The AIA was founded by the left-wing artists and designer Clifford Rowe, Misha Black and James Boswell.55 The association organized exhibitions with social and political themes, supporting and promoting various left-wing and anti-fascist political causes. A few of the artists also met in transit camps after their arrest. It is likely that they grouped together and were subsequently interned together.56 These factors could have contributed to the extraordinarily large
concentration of artists in Hutchinson Camp.
The fact that many internees were members of leagues and associations before they were interned helped stimulate the development of a bureaucratic apparatus inside the camp. Only a few days after Hutchinson Camp was opened, internees formed the ‘Cultural
Department’. The Cultural Department arranged lectures by former university lecturers who now resided in the camp. There was a lot of interest in these lectures, some were attended by as many as 300 internees. Because of the large number of lectures and growing audiences, the Cultural Department had to work together with the camp administration to prevent chaotic 52 Stent, 1980: p. 164. 53 Hinrichsen, 1993: p. 189. 54 Müller-Härlin, 2005: p. 241. 55 Müller-Härlin, 2008: p. 28. 56 Hinrichsen, 1993: p. 189.
21 situations. Captain (later Major) H.O. Daniel helped by providing additional spaces for the lectures. He was very much involved with the Cultural Department and with the individual artists. He provided materials and studios for artists and is described by many former internees as a friendly and helpful man, who did a lot for the cultural life in the camp.57 To thank him for his services, a number of artists gifted him a leather-bound book with artworks they made in the camp as a reminder of his time as commander of Hutchinson.
With the help of the camp commanders, the Cultural Department was able to organize around 600 lectures by 1941, apart from the many courses and study groups. The lectures covered a wide range of subjects, such as: agriculture, art, history, philosophy, geography, social studies, Arabian studies, law and accountancy. All of the lectures were held on a strict schedule that was printed and handed out every few days [fig. 7]. The Cultural Department was also in charge of music. A few internees had been famous musicians before their internment, such as the pianist duo Rawicz and Landauer. Marjan Rawicz was interned in Hutchinson, but Walter Landauer was interned elsewhere. However, Captain Daniel hired two concert pianos and arranged for Landauer to come to Hutchinson for a concert. Soon, concerts were a regular appearance in the camp and compositions by great composers such as Brahms, Mozart and Händel were performed.58
The academic and cultural activities in the camp benefited not only those who
attended the activities, but also those who organized them. Lecturers could continue working, even though it was without pay, and could therefore hold on to their identity as academics. The lectures also played an important role in keeping up their morale. As Hinrichsen puts it: “[the lecturers] find happiness and satisfaction in teaching”.59 He explains that the activities organized by the cultural department served as a way to spare many internees from depression and gave them the opportunity to maintain or enquire scientific knowledge.60
57 Hinrichsen,1993: p. 194. Powell, 2013: p. 34.
58 Sometimes the music was performed by only three people, one playing the flute, one on the piano and one on the violin. See concert announcement in Hutchinson Internment Camp cultural events programmes and schedules, IWM Documents.5382.
59 Hinrichsen, 1999: p. 3, part of folders of writings and talks by Klaus Hinrichsen, TGA 20052/1/10/1.
60 This is another example of necessity, as described in the first chapter of this thesis. The community that existed in Hutchinson was in essence also a necessity. It gave many internees a sense of purpose. Hinrichsen, 1999: p. 3, part of folders of writings and talks by Klaus Hinrichsen, TGA 20052/1/10/1.
22 Figure 7. A schedule of lectures held in Hutchinson Camp. Part of Hutchinson Internment Camp
23 The establishment of the Cultural Department in the camp can be seen as a
continuation of the formation of artist organizations before internment. Artists forming leagues and collectives was a normal occurrence long before the war began. In an attempt to continue these normal artistic practices, internees developed the Cultural Department. They attempted to cope with their situation of captivity by simulating elements of their life before internment, thus creating the opportunity to re-establish their identity as artists. However, this seeming continuance of aspects of the artists’ lives before internment can not be seen as entirely authentic. Although there were great efforts to make life in the camp as comfortable and recognizable as possible, there is no denying the effect internment had on otherwise regular artistic activities. This ambivalence between striving for normality and the reality of the imposed circumstances of internment is core to the activities in the camp.
The Cultural department arranged lectures about art, given by artists such as Schwitters and Paul Hamann, and organized performances, courses and exhibitions. Two main art exhibitions were organized in the camp. The first exhibition was in September of 1940. Unfortunately there is little information about this exhibition. The only document discussing this exhibition is a review, written by an internee who goes by ‘A.Z.’. He discusses the participating artists and the quality of their work. He mentions for instance Kurt
Schwitters, Hermann Fechenbach, Fred Uhlman and Hellmuth Weissenborn, artists who were all actively involved in the cultural activities in the camp and who also exhibited works during the second exhibition. In his review, A.Z. shares his view on the creation of art in the camp:
“To Summarize the impression after visiting the camp’s Art Exhibition: it is astounding and encouraging to see how the artists under the given conditions did not loose [sic, BV] heart. Each of them proved himself stronger than his accidental fate.”61
This quote shows that the internees and the artists were aware of how amazing it was that art could be created in the circumstances of internment. The success of this first exhibition must have inspired the Cultural Department and the artists to organize another one.
The second exhibition in the camp was held in November 1940, and is very well documented. Luckily the catalogue for this exhibition survived as well as several photographs of the exhibition, taken by Captain Daniel. Hinrichsen wrote a preview to the second
61 Quote from A.Z. in The Camp, no. 1, 21 September 1940. Reproduced in Brinson, 2009. Figure 6, no page number.
24 exhibition, stating that, after the great success of the first exhibition, the second was worth looking forward to again. According to him, the amount of works exhibited was simply amazing, as was the artistic quality of the works.62 All the artworks that were exhibited were for sale and Hinrichsen was of the opinion that the artworks were certainly worth buying. In the catalogue of the exhibition it clearly states “Please ask for camp prices”, “For prices of the works exhibited kindly as attendants” and “Place your order for your portrait”.63 The
catalogue cost two dimes. Hinrichsen explains in his preview that some of the profits from the exhibition would go to the welfare fund of the camp, and would thus benefit everyone.
However, Hinrichsen also expresses that monetary welfare was certainly not the most important function of the exhibition. The exhibition played a far more important role in the general wellbeing of the internees:
“If we are now looking forward to another exhibition we again trust that the artists may help others to overcome dark hours. Again there may arise the feeling of “sursum corda” which always has been the magic force of art.”64
Hinrichsen stresses an important role of art in the camp: it helps the internees to cope with their situation, whether they create art, or simply participate by visiting the exhibition. He writes about the feeling of sursum corda (roughly translated: the lifting of the heart) that art can bring to the viewer. This exhibition was clearly an important contribution to the feeling of community created in the camp, not only among the internees but also including the camp officials. Camp officials visited regularly and Captain Daniel officially opened the
exhibition.65
I believe that by offering the exhibited works for sale, the artists were attempting again to simulate circumstances prior to their internment. Selling works of art established the artists’ professionalism. By making money off their art they regress to the situation where there was no question of their identity as artists. Making money off the art you created is the basis of being a professional artist. Besides simply selling art and making money, there was also an element of competition created by these circumstances. Whose art would sell best? And therefore: which artists would be the most appreciated? So although Hinrichsen’s
62 Hinrichsen, 13 November 1940. TGA 20052/2/6/13.
63 Catalogue of the second exhibition at Hutchinson Camp, 19 November 1940. Part of private papers of Dr. F. Uhlman, IWM Documents.6781.
64 Hinrichsen, 13 November 1940. TGA 20052/2/6/13.
65 Dickson, McDougall, Smalley, 2012: p. 194; Uhlman, translated diary, 1978: 19 Nov. 1940, p. 36, part of private papers of Dr. F. Uhlman, IWM Documents.6781.
25 interpretation of the exhibition as a way of helping internees overcome the hardships of
internment is very valid, there is also the important aspect of the confirmation of the identity of the artists and the continuing pursuit of normality in abnormal circumstances.
The catalogue of the second exhibition existed out of a two sided list of works that were exhibited by the 22 participating artists. The catalogue was decorated with a small vignette made by artist Erich Kahn, who exhibited three oil paintings, a caricature of
Hinrichsen and several drawings. The titles of the artworks in the catalogue suggest that there were three main subjects in the exhibition: scenes of internment, portraits and landscapes. Exceptions to this were the works exhibited by Ernst Müller-Blensdorf. His drawings, plaques and sculptures featured slightly erotic undertones, displaying nudes, lovers and a ‘giant’ sculpture of a pregnant woman. The latter was apparently not much appreciated by a visiting British officer.66 Erotic works were certainly not a predominant style of art in the camp, but they were present. Some of the window carvings featured erotic subjects, mostly in the form of playful female nudes and nymphs.67 Of course not all female nudes are necessarily erotic, but Stent and Hinrichsen both wrote about erotic imagery being present in the camp.68 During my study of the camp’s cultural events programmes and schedules, I came across a concert programme with quite a crude drawing of a female nude on the back.69 Again, this might have been a preliminary study for a nude sculpture, but I imagine that being an artist in a all-male internment camp can make it tempting to draw female nudes from time to time.
According to Hinrichsen, the second exhibition showed a wide range of styles, most of them suppressed in Germany at the time and difficult to appreciate for a British officer, whose taste was more likely conditioned by French art, as encouraged by artist and educator Roger Fry and other members of the Bloomsbury Group.70 The styles that were present were described by Hinrichsen as follows:
“Solomonski, and Schwitters in his landscapes, were late Impressionists, Fred Uhlman and Carlo Pietzner Surrealists and Symbolists, Kahn and Blensdorf undoubted Expressionists […]. Weissenborn and Dachinger might well be described as Romantic Realists, and Fechenbach represented Neue Sachlichkeit.”71
66 Hinrichsen, 1993: p. 201. 67 Stent, 1980: p. 159.
68 Hinrichsen, 1993: p. 191, 203, 206; Stent, 1980: p. 159.
69 Hutchinson Internment Camp cultural events programmes and schedules, 1940 - 1941. IWM. Cat. No. Documents.5382.
70 Hinrichsen, 1993: p. 201. 71 Hinrichsen, 1993: p. 201.
26 Although he describes a multitude of styles present at the exhibition, the photographs show only figurative works [fig. 8, 9]. It is not clear why there was such a lack of abstract work at the exhibition and in the camp in general. Schwitters, for instance, was one of the few artists in the camp who made abstract art, mostly in the form of collages.72 However, he did not exhibit any of these works. Schwitters chose to mainly exhibit his portraits. Perhaps the works served as advertisements for his portrait business, which was quite lucrative. But there was also another reason why he refrained from exhibiting his more avant-garde works. Some prominent artists in the camp had been vocal about their dislike of Dada art.73
It is possible that Schwitters did not want to exhibit these works because he was afraid they would not be appreciated by fellow artists and other internees. This shows a different side of the existence of a tight-knit artistic community. Even though the artists would support and help each other in many ways, there was the inevitability of competitiveness and peer pressure. This is also expressed in a letter published in the camp journal to welcome new internees to the camp in February 1941. There is mention of the new internees being able to ‘compete’ with the artists of the camp.74 Competition between artists is a natural occurrence, and as previously mentioned, the fact that the artworks were for sale established an
environment where this element of competition would certainly be present.
Even though there is evidence that Schwitters made art in multiple styles, the question of style in the camp in general isn’t much elaborated on by former internees or in literature about Hutchinson Camp. Even though Hinrichsen briefly mentions which styles can be attributed to some of the artists in the quote above, they all seemed to exhibit works that weren’t overtly avant-gardist, but rather quite realistic and academic. At the beginning of ‘Visual Art behind the Wire’, Hinrichsen claims that being interned, meant artistic freedom
72 Hinrichsen, 1993: p. 193; Uhlman, 1960: p. 235.
73 Hinrichsen, interview 1987; Uhlman, translated diary 1978: 11 Sept. 1940, p. 8, part of private papers of Dr. F. Uhlman, IWM Documents.6781.
74 The Camp, 27 Feb. 1941, part of Hutchinson Internment Camp cultural events programmes and schedules, 1940 - 1941. IWM. Cat. No. Documents.5382.
27 Figure 8. Photograph of internees at the second art exhibition at Hutchinson Internment Camp,
November 1940.
28 for the artists, since they were able to continue their work which had been labelled Entartet (degenerate) by the German state.75 However, when closely examining the photographs of the second exhibition, and looking at the backgrounds of some of the artists, there seems to be little evidence supporting his claim. Why would Hinrichsen write this, knowing that many artists in Hutchinson Camp weren’t in exile because of their art being declared Etnartet in Germany? This is a strange discrepancy in the literature about Hutchinson Camp and it shows the blind spots of research on this topic. Hinrichsen’s claim is difficult to check since there is simply not enough evidence that indicates whether or not there was an abundance of art created in the camp that qualified as degenerate.
Event though it is disputable whether there were mostly academic figurative works being made in the camp, there are a few possible reasons why interned artists would refrain from working in avant-gardist styles. First of all, there was the issue of available materials. Some artists had to work with materials that were new and foreign to them. To fall back on a more realist academic style would be understandable when learning new techniques.
Secondly, not all interned artists fled Germany or Austria because of their controversial artworks. Weissenborn, for instance, worked in a very academic style and only had to resign from his teaching position at the academy of Leipzig because his wife was Jewish. He was not persecuted because of his art.
Lastly, there is the issue of relating style to subject matter. Many of the interned artists experienced the avant-garde movements in Germany and Austria. They were very familiar with expressionism and other avant-garde styles. And even though Kahn and Müller-Blensdorf might have been exceptions, most interned artists did not work in and overtly expressive style. My suggestion is that the subject matter, especially if the subject was internment, was already expressive enough. Uhlman writes in his dairy about a conversation he had with Schwitters about Dada. I will elaborate further on the subject of Dada in the camp in the third chapter, but for now I would like to reference a quote by Uhlman to illustrate the perception of expression in subject matter rather than style. Uhlman was not a great fan of Dada himself, but he did ask the question: “Isn’t life Dada enough?”.76 And perhaps this is a thought that was common with artists in the camp. The reality of being interned does not need to be moulded into a Dadaist or expressionist style, because expression is already inherent to the subject.
75 Hinrichsen, 1993: p. 188.
76 Uhlman, translated diary 1978: 11 Sept. 1940, p. 8, part of private papers of Dr. F. Uhlman, IWM Documents.6781.
29 It is likely that matters of style were discussed among the artists in the camp. In a
basement laundry room, the internees had set up an artists’ café, where visual artists, architects, writers, actors and others with cultural affiliations would discuss current affairs, sing chansons and enjoy other entertainment [fig. 10].77 Being able to discuss art and style with other artists can be an important part of an artist’s identity. In this case, maybe even more important than the actual execution of the discussed styles. This is again an example of the interned artists trying to normalize their situation of captivity by creating a situation that was familiar to them from their lives before internment, since going to artists cafés was a common occurrence for most of the interned artists.
Figure 10. Uhlman, Fred. The Café. 1940. Ink and charcoal on paper.
30 Another way internees could share opinions, art and writings in the camp, was through the publication of a camp journal, aptly named The Camp. The Camp achieved 44 issues between the 21st of September, 1940 and the 1st of November, 1941.78 Hutchinson Camp was provided with duplicating machines to publish the camp journal. Since The Camp was a valuable platform for artists to showcase their work, they needed to adjust to yet another new technique. Luckily Kahn had experimented with wax stencils, and found a way for artists to print their works using the duplicator machine. However, not all artists were immediately well adjusted to this technique. In the preface of the Almanac of The Camp, published in honour of the new year in December 1940, editor Michael Corvin states:
“We wish, however, to stress the fact that for producing the Almanac we had to work with a simple Flat-Duplicator. Each artist was compelled to adapt his personal style to the very limited possibilities of a flimsy wax stencil, most of the artists being completely unacquainted to that material.”79
The Camp Almanac was a special edition of the camp journal, it counted as issues 13 and 14 of The Camp, and was meant to be a “cross section through the cultural and artistic life of Hutchinson Camp in the second half of the year 1940.”80 It was the most elaborate publication of The Camp [fig. 11]. A regular issue of The Camp consisted of just a few sheets with poems, stories, reviews of art and lectures, and reports on current camp affairs. The Almanac was a much bigger project, containing countless artworks and stories by internees.
Even though Corvin warned that artists had to adapt their personal style to the new medium that was used for printing the Almanac, it cannot be said that the works of art presented were of low quality. Artists clearly put much effort into the works they submitted for the Almanac, as they were large and in some cases quite elaborate. The interned architect Bruno Arends contributed multiple architectural drawings alongside a written plan for the reconstruction of Hutchinson Camp and other sea side resorts on the Isle of Man [fig. 10]. He predicted that, after the war, there would be a considerable increase of holiday traffic to the Isle of Man, and thus the existing boarding houses needed to be seriously remodelled. Ahrends even designed a skyscraper, designed to house “everything a holiday-maker might
78 Taylor, 2005: p. 140.
79 Corvin, in The Camp Almanac, 1940, part of private papers of Dr. F. Uhlman, IWM Documents.6781.
80 Corvin, in The Camp Almanac, 1940, part of private papers of Dr. F. Uhlman, IWM Documents.6781.
31 need, rain or shine!”81 Ahrends was obviously in his element, redesigning his current living quarters. His enthusiasm shows an important function of the camp journal, he was able to step back into his life before he was interned and perhaps for a moment think of other things than his captivity.82
Other contributors to the Almanac were Kahn, Hinrichsen, Müller-Blensdorf, Schwitters and Weissenborn. Kahn contributed artworks in several forms: vignettes or illustrations of stories by other internees, and a few autonomous artworks. He contributed his work Aesop (1940), which shows a man with a lamp ‘searching for a human being among the grotesque multitude.’83 The artist depicts himself as being part of the ‘grotesque multitude’ [fig. 13]. It is possible that he confused the ancient Greek poet Aesop, who was known for his fables, with the Greek philosopher Diogenes, who searched the market place with a lamp for an honest man during daytime, illustrating the difficulty of finding one.84 According to several internees, including Hinrichsen, Kahn was one of the most outstanding artists in the camp.85 He supposedly drew and painted his nightmares, creating images of burning cities and fugitives, running in despair.86 Unfortunately, not many of Kahn’s works have survived the camp. Most of the works that have survived are the small vignettes and works that picture internees and lectures given on the lawn.
Just like the art exhibitions, the camp journal gave an opportunity for the internees to express and show to the others in the camp who they were before internment. Artists were able to contribute art and essays about art, Hinrichsen wrote several texts about art in the camp and in general, writers and philosophers wrote stories and observations.87 Although The Camp served as a way to express part of their identity before internment, most of the
contributions were related to the experience of internment. This shows a parallel to the art made in Hutchinson Camp, where this ambivalence is also observable. The Camp and
especially the Almanac are representations of the struggle and the ambivalence of identity the
81 Ahrends, in The Camp Almanac, 1940, Part of private papers of Dr. F. Uhlman, IWM Documents.6781.
82 Unfortunately for Ahrends, Hutchinson Camp was not remodeled after the war. Most houses are now renovated, but no giant vacation complex has been built. And although most boarding houses are now family homes, there still is the possibility of vacationing on Hutchinson square. One of the former boarding houses now serves as a Bed and Breakfast.
83 Hinrichsen, 1993: p. 206. 84 Vinzent, 2003: p. 82.
85 Hellmuth Weissenborn interview, 1978; Klaus Hinrichsen interview, 1978; Peter Midgley interview, 1978.
86 Hinrichsen, 1993: p. 206.
87 These stories helped me create and confirm my image of Hutchinson camp and its internees, they contributed to my argument.
32 Figure 11. Weissenborn, Hellmuth. Cover of
Almanac 1941, Hutchinson Internment Camp, Souglas Isle of Man. December 1940.
Lithograph and watercolour on paper.
33 internees endured while in the camp. However much they tried to exert their identity as
artists, it was inseparable from their identity as internees.
There was a certain amount of censorship related to the publication of The Camp. Corvin wrote in the second issue of The Camp:
“We are not a free newspaper in the sense of the law, but thanks to the commander we are free in the moral sense and thus able to give constructive criticism of whatever disturbs us.”88
In other camps, some journals were banned because of their critical content. However, even though it did not avoid criticism, The Camp was allowed to continue being published. The writers for The Camp had a clever way of implementing their criticism in texts without offending the camp officers or the general government. They used a patriotic narrative to describe their situation. For instance, in an open letter from members of the Technical School in Hutchinson Camp to the commander, published in The Camp on 15 October 1940,
internees expressed the following sentiment:89
“We believe that the internees should obtain a chance to make full use of their time, which is now being wasted. We do not want Red Cross, or any other Prisoner of War work. We want to prove our loyalty to Great Britain and our hatred of Nazidom and it is our aim to participate to the best of our ability in the industrial war effort of this country.”90
While essentially expressing their negative feelings towards internment, they use a positive sounding patriotic tone to criticize their situation. This was not censored.
It was important to the internees not to offend Great Britain and to show that they were able to adjust to their new country of residence, even though this was the same country that ordered their captivity. Language was an important tool for the internees to show their ability and willingness to integrate into the British society. It was decided that The Camp would be written in English.91 But the promise of being a good British citizen in the future was not the only motive to use the English language throughout the camp. Some internees wanted to distance themselves from their home country, German was the language of Hitler. They had
88 Quote from Michael Corvin, 19 September 1940, quoted in Taylor, 2005: p. 147.
89 The Technical School was a part of the Camp university, technically schooled internees taught other internees about all things technical in the camp, such as radios, heaters and sound systems. Pistol, 2015: p. 44; Stent, 1980: p. 176.
90 Quote from The Camp, 15 October 1940, quoted in Taylor, 2005: p. 148. 91 Hinrichsen, 1993: p. 195, 198.
34 moral obligations to using their original language, and it reminded them of the traumas they had suffered in Germany and Austria.92 Kurt Schwitters was interned with his son Ernst, and when Ernst was released and went back to Norway, their correspondence was strictly in English.93 Schwitters had distanced himself from his mother tongue.
For some internees the German language was not quite so tainted. German was the language that was still most commonly spoken in the camp. Fellow house-mates of
Weissenborn wanted English to be the spoken language in the house, but Weissenborn was against it. He feared that he would not learn proper English and would for ever make mistakes he picked up in the camp.94 Some internees stuck to the German language because of fear of the German army. When France was invaded by the Nazis, they had surrendered their internment camps and most internees were captured or killed. If the same fate would be bestowed on the internees on the Isle of Man, these internees wanted to give the impression they were on the side of the German army.95 Others made it clear that the German language was not necessarily connected to Hitler. In The Camp, essays would often refer to ‘Nazidom’ as the enemy, in stead of ‘Germany’.96 Many internees still saw Germany as the country of great culture and philosophers, the country where they were raised.
Language is an important part of a person’s identity, it connects someone to their heritage. But when this heritage in is danger of being tainted, language is not always an easy thing to distance yourself from. By publishing the camp journal in English, the internees made an important statement about the development of their identity as Englishmen. The
contributions to the journal, literary or artistic, expressed their identity as writers and artists. The artistic community provided a supporting and challenging surrounding for the artists in the camp by organizing exhibitions and meetings in the artists’ café. These were all attempts at recreating a situation in the camp that would validate their identity as artists. However, there was always an ambiguity in identity. Whatever the interned artists did, unless they were released, they would be internees as well as artists. They participated heavily in the camp’s cultural activities but at the same time were constantly thinking about their future release. They craved the normal existence of an artist, as well as freedom.
92 Hinrichsen Interview, 1978: 3/9. 93 Wilson, 2013: p. 5.
94 Weissenborn interview, 1978: 3/4.
95 This fear was very present in the camp, especially during the first few months. Stent, 1980: p. 168; Lafitte, 1940: p. 95. Uhlman wrote the following example of this fear in his diary: ‘Wake up during night. Somebody in the next house screams “They are coming. They are coming. They want to kill me. Help! Help!” And another voice: “Don’t be afraid. Sleep. Sleep.”’ Uhlman, translated diary 1978: 7 Sept. 1940, p. 6, part of private papers of Dr. F. Uhlman, IWM Documents.6781.
35 Figure 13. Kahn, Erich. Aesop. 1940. Wax stencil print.
36
3.
Individuality
The interned artists Hellmuth Weissenborn, Kurt Schwitters and Fred Uhlman all continued producing art during their period of captivity. However, there is a noticeable difference in the subject matter and styles the artists chose. Weissenborn focussed most on realism and
illustrations, while Schwitters worked in both a realistic academic style, as well as a more avant-garde style. Uhlman was not as much occupied with style, but rather with subject matter. His critical drawings about organized religion and captivity are unique amongst the artworks created in Hutchinson Camp.
Of course these three artists do not represent all art made in the camp, but they are good examples of the diversity of artists and styles. They show that artists did not simply conform to their surroundings, whether that meant being pressured by an artistic community, or by the confines of internment. If anything, the camp gave a relative freedom from outside pressures and influences, allowing the artists to continue working and to develop new skills and discover new themes.
The process of developing new styles or discovering new subject matter is an
important part of holding on to the artist’s artistic identity during internment. In this chapter, I will discuss the art made by the three artists mentioned above and I will place it in the broader context of their lives, careers and their imprisonment. I hope to show a nuanced picture of the artists and the role their artistic expression played in the creating or sustaining of an artistic identity in the camp.
3.1 Hellmuth Weissenborn
Hellmuth Weissenborn (1898 – 1982) was born in Leipzig and lived there until he fled to the United Kingdom in 1939.97 At the age of sixteen he fought in the First World War. He would draw postcards and send them home to his father, who was also an artist and who encouraged Hellmuth to draw and model clay from a very young age. After the war, Weissenborn went to university and studied, among other subjects, art history, psychology and African languages. He had a very particular interest in anthropology and even worked at an anthropological
