Artist’s plaque stolen in Ukraine

By · May 19, 2008

A memorial plaque was stolen from the site where a Jewish writer and painter was killed in Western Ukraine.

The bronze plaque for Bruno Schulz was dedicated a year and a half ago by the Polish organization in the artists’ birthplace, the town of Drohobycz, in Ukraine’s Lvov province. It was placed at the spot where Schulz was shot by a Nazi officer on Nov. 19, 1942.

According to Lvov Jewish leaders, the act of vandalism took place between May 9 and 10 but was reported only Sunday.

Boris Dorfman, a Lvov Jewish activist, told JTA that local law enforcement agencies detained a young suspect.

Among Schulz’s works are a collection of short stories called “The Street of Crocodiles” and the novel “Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass,” as well as the unfinished novel “The Messiah.”

During the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, Schulz was protected temporarily by Gestapo officer Felix Landau, who admired his drawings. During the last weeks of his life, Schulz painted a mural in Landau’s home in Drohobycz, pieces of which were restored and smuggled out of the country to Jerusalem by Yad Vashem.

Two weeks earlier, unknown vandals demolished the fence of a local Jewish cemetery that is no longer used for new burials. Local police are investigating the case but say they don’t believe the vandalism was politically motivated.