Sunday 14 February 2021

75 Years Ago

An odd anniversary has come around for Fritz Stehwien and his family. 75 years ago, as a young German art student forced into war, and then into a Russian prison camp in Poland, Fritz escaped with forged papers. His paintbrush was the key and the long, cold, heart stopping journey ended peacefully in early 1946.

The forged papers, as well as many artworks survived (winter scene shown in blog header above). The story has now been compiled, along with images of these artworks, in the following book: 

The Power of a Paintbrush

Also in German: Die Macht des Pinsels

The cover of the book features the prison release papers, front and back, enlarged to show detail. The stamp, the signatures and what appears to be authorized names and dates were all meticulously painted with a fine brush.

Available through SaskBooks https://www.skbooks.com/