Joesph Bau

 

I just finished watching “Bau: Artist At War” a 2024 film about Joseph Bau (played by  Emile Hirsch.)

Joseph Bau was born on June 18, 1920 in Krakow, Poland.

He attended a Non-Jewish Primary School, but due to Poland’s Racial Laws was forced to attend a Jewish High School.

After High School he trained as a Graphic Artist at the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow until Germany invaded Poland in 1939.

He and his Family were kept in the Krakow Ghetto where he worked with the Jewish Resistance to make Forged Identity Cards.

In 1942 Bau and his Family were moved to the Plaszow Concentration Camp.

At Plaszow, Bau worked as a Map and Sign Maker for the Camp Commandant, Amon Goth.

He also worked for the Resistance in the Camp and made Identity Cards that helped 400 People escape.

In Plaszow, Bau met and secretly married Rebecca Tennenbaum who was the Manicurist for Amon Goth (their wedding was in Steven Speilberg’s 1993 film: “Schindler’s List.”)

From Plaszow, Bau was deported to the Gross-Rosen Concentration Camp and then to Oskar Schindler’s Work Camp in Czechoslovakia where he worked as Oskar Schindler’s Forger and helped deceive the Nazis until he was liberated in 1945 (as one of the 1,200 Jewish Men, Women and Children saved by Oskar Schindler.)

Rebecca was sent to the Auschwitz Death Camp.

It wasn’t until 1993 when “Schindler’s List” came out that Bau learned that Rebecca had placed his name on Schindler’s List instead of her own.

After the War, Bau found Rebecca and went back to Poland where he finished his degree at the University of Plastic Arts in Krakow.

In 1950, Bau, Rebecca and their 3 year old Daughter, Hadassah, fled Communist Poland and moved to Israel.

In Israel their other Daughter, Clila, was born.

Bau worked for the Israeli Intelligence Corps and then in 1956 he worked as a Graphic Artist at the Brandwein Institute in Haifa and for the Government of Israel.

He was called the Israeli Walt Disney and founded Israel’s Animation Industry because he drew the pictures for nearly ever Israeli Film in the 1950s, the 1960s and the 1970s.

Rebecca died in 1997.

In 1998, his Memoir “Dear God. Have You Ever Gone Hungry?” was published.

The Joseph Bau House Museum is located in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Joseph Bau died in Tel Aviv, Israel on May 24, 2002 at the age of 81.