Poster collection once confiscated by Nazis on display

Photo credit: Andres Cardenas/The Beacon

Daniel Uria/Staff Writer

This past summer, The Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU, located on Miami Beach, debuted a collection of posters that had been confiscated by Nazis from collector Dr. Hans Sachs. Sachs’ collection included 12,500 posters, making it the largest private poster collection in the world. In 1938, during the occupation chief of Nazi propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, confiscated his collection, claiming it would be moved to another museum.

The Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU hosted an exhibit called AUKTION 392, that focused on Florida families attempting to reclaim Nazi-looted art. While researching this exhibit, the museum discovered Dr. Sachs’s son, Paul, who had been fighting to win back his father’s collection.

“At the time of our exhibit, he had not been successful,” explained Executive Director Jo Ann Arnowitz. “He was still fighting German courts to get restitution.”

Approximately 4,259 of the posters were finally released to Sachs’s family by the German government in 2012. Some of the pieces have been auctioned off, while some have been given to various museums, including The Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU.

In a press release by the museum, Sachs is quoted explaining why he chose to distribute the pieces: “There’s, of course, no practical way that I could frame and hang 4,300 posters, so I just didn’t see any other alternative than to do what we’re doing.” He told the Huffington Post.

“But I don’t feel guilty in any way whatsoever — even with them being auctioned, I think it’s far preferable that they will wind up in the hands of people who truly enjoy them and appreciate them, rather than sitting in a museum’s storage for another 70 years without seeing the light of day.”

The museum is just as ecstatic about the opportunity for people to share in the beauty of Sachs’s collection.

“It’s very exciting for us to have this collection on display,” said Arnowitz. “We’re very proud that Sachs turned to us in order to ask us to display it.”

The exhibit features a selection of about 21 of Sachs’s posters on display, some of which are believed to be the very last posters in existence of that particular image. The posters include propaganda and political posters, as well as entertainment, travel and sports posters among other things.

Arnowitz claims that since the exhibit has opened, the reception has been overwhelmingly positive.

“I think people are amazed to see the different scope of the posters, and it’s a really good representation of the work that he collected.”

The collection seems most impressive when one considers what it has been through.

“It’s survived through this tumultuous heritage of having been carefully cared for by a collector, and then ended up wandering through the turmoil of the war and then finally making its way out,” Arnowitz said. “I think that it really adds a lot to telling a full story. And in this case, it’s a very positive story that the family has finally been able to get some of the posters back.”

The exhibit will remain on display through December 2013.