One of the most interesting among the German Jewish refugees who have recently arrived in this country is Leon Schleifer, the brilliant artist, illustrator and caricaturist who enjoyed a high reputation in Germany before the Nazis came to power. His delineations of German types, his caricatures in the Scoial Democratic Vorwaerts and afterward in the Ullstein publications were regarded as masterpieces in which the social and political frailties of German life were portrayed with great skill and daring. After Hitler had come to power, Herr Schleifer, like other Jewish intellectuals and artists, fell a victim to the Nazi “Aryan” clause. For a time he was permitted to work, but without the right of signing his drawings. Finally he was notified that he was not allowed to work any longer for German publications on the ground that as a “non-Aryan,” he was incapable of understanding or doing justice to “Aryans” or Nazism.
Mr. Schleifer is completing a series of works depicting the Third Reich, its leaders and its crimes. These remarkable drawings will be exhibited in New York before long.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
