Women in the Jewish Art Trade during WWII: Dilemmas and Survival Strategies

The presentation discusses the understudied role of non-Jewish women in art dealerships classified as Jewish in the Netherlands during WWII. Wives, daughters, female employees and family friends often played a crucial role in protecting ‘Jewish’ businesses. Through forms of ‘self-aryanization’, some women were able to keep art dealerships running and relatives alive. Drawn into a system of persecution, they sometimes managed to undermine this system at the micro level through acts of sabotage. Using three case studies, the presentation aims to shed light on the precarious positions, moral dilemmas and survival strategies of these women. Elisabeth Verlaan-Peters was a secretary who became in charge of the art dealership I. Rosenbaum after its Jewish owners fled. Elisa Emma (Lili) Bachstitz-Hofer was forced to divorce her Jewish husband in order to take over and save his business, the Bachstitz Gallery. Antoinette Duncker played a key role in saving her Jewish husband’s art dealership, S. van Leeuwen, and rebuilding it after the war.