Emmy Ettlinger

Falck-Ettlinger, Emmy (1882–1960)

Emmy Falck-Ettlinger was born in Lübeck (Germany), studied art in Berlin and after her marriage moved to Karlsruhe in Baden-Würtemberg. In October 1940, with the deportation of Jews from Baden and Pfalz, she was interned in Gurs. She suffered from breast cancer and in 1941 was transferred to a special center founded by Abbé Alexandre Glasberg (1902–1981). During the year 1942 she was allowed to move to Switzerland, where she lived with her son. In 1950 she immigrated to Israel, joining her daughter who was a member of Kibbutz Bet ha-Shittah. She died in 1960.

Her drawings from Gurs portray emptiness and loneliness. She drew the cemetery at Gurs, where over a thousand inmates were buried, most of whom had been deported from Germany. She donated her works to the art collection of the Ghetto Fighters’ House.