Jacob Barosin Collection
Scope and Content Note
This collection documents the life of artist Jacob Barosin (1906-2001). The range of materials includes official documents, personal papers, manuscripts, correspondence, ephemera, and hundreds of photographs. The majority dates from 1926 to 1973. There is little material from the last two decades of Barosin’s life.
Barosin’s personal life is reflected in his papers and official documents such as passports and residence permits from Germany, France, and the United States. It is also documented in extensive correspondence between Jacob and his wife Sonia Barosin, their correspondence with family and friends, and correspondence of a general nature. The collection includes letters from the Gurs concentration camp. Hundreds of annotated photographs document the daily lives of Jacob and Sonia Barosin in Germany, France, and the United States.
Evidence of Barosin’s professional life as a writer and an artist includes the typescript and manuscript of his 1930 doctoral dissertation about Sienese painter Domenico Beccafumi, as well as the typescript of his Holocaust memoir “A Remnant” (1988). His work as an artist is documented by drawings, exhibit catalogs, and business correspondence.
Dates
- 1892-1999
- Majority of material found within 1926-1973
Creator
- Barosin, Jacob (Person)
Language of Materials
The collection is in English, German, French, Russian, Hebrew, Romanian, and Yiddish.
Access Restrictions
Open to researchers.
Access Information
Collection is digitized. Follow the links in the Container List to access the digitized materials.
Biographical Note
Jacob Barosin (1906-2001) was born Jacob Judey on 3 January 1906 to Russian Jews Hermann and Olga Judey. His German birth certificate indicates that he was born in Berlin, but biographical statements throughout the collection indicate he was born in Riga, Latvia (then part of Russia). In any case, he grew up in Berlin and attended the Schiller Real Gymnasium and then the Berlin Kunst Akademie. He studied applied art and art history at the University of Berlin and earned a Ph.D. in art history from the University of Freiburg (1930). In 1927, he married Sonia Finkel in Charlottenburg, Berlin. Sonia was born in Tighina, Moldova, in 1904.
Sensing danger, in 1933 the couple emigrated from Germany to Paris, where they adopted the surname Barosin. Early in 1943 they were arrested and sent to the deportation camp in Gurs. They were freed by French authorities and went into hiding until their liberation in 1944 in Paris. In 1947 they immigrated to the United States, settling in Kew Gardens, NY in 1950.
Barosin actively engaged in an artistic career in the United States. He had a particular interest in religious themes, inspired by a Bible that he and Sonia read while in hiding in France. Among many other things, he illustrated the Jewish Family Bible and a well-known religious film strip, and painted eighteen life-size prophets and a large mural of Jesus. He also worked as an illustrator for NBC-TV for 15 years.
Barosin’s wife Sonia died in 1973. In December 1976, Barosin married his second wife, Natalie (neé Stein), who died in 2006.
His original sketchbook of Gurs is permanently with Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. His memoir “A Remnant,” describing his life in France during the Holocaust, was published in 1988.
Extent
2.5 Linear Feet
Abstract
This collection documents the academic, professional and private life of Jacob Barosin (1906-2001), a painter and artist of Russian-Jewish descent. Barosin was raised in Berlin, but he fled to France in 1933 and in 1943 survived a stint in the Gurs concentration camp. The collection primarily contains correspondence, ephemera, manuscripts, official documents, personal papers, and photographs.
Arrangement
- Series I: Personal Documents, 1906-1981
- Subseries 1: Germany
- Subseries 2: France
- Subseries 3: United States
- Subseries 4: Romania
- Subseries 5: Genealogy
- Series II: Correspondence, 1920-1999
- Series III: Professional, 1922-1989, bulk 1930-1959
- Series IV: Various, 1926-1971
- Series V: Photographs, 1892-1990, bulk 1926-1973
Separated Material
Some photographs have been removed to the LBI Photo Collection.
Books have been removed to the LBI Library.
Processing Information
This collection was placed in acid-free folders, boxed, and inventoried upon accession.
In July 2010, the collection was processed into intellectual units (series and subseries).
This collection is in reasonable physical condition.
- Barosin, Jacob
- Bible -- Illustrations
- Correspondence
- Emigration and immigration
- Ephemera (general object genre)
- France
- Germany
- Gurs (Concentration camp)
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- France
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in art
- Jewish artists
- Manuscripts (documents)
- Official documents
- Personal papers
- Photographs
- United States
- Title
- Guide to the Jacob Barosin (1906-2001) Collection 1892-1999 (bulk 1926-1973) AR 25275
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Processed by Kevin Schlottmann
- Date
- © 2010
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Description is in English.
- Sponsor
- as part of the Leon Levy Archival Processing Initiative, made possible by the Leon Levy Foundation
Revision Statements
- February 26, 2013 : Links to digital objects added in Container List.
Repository Details
Part of the Leo Baeck Institute Repository