From the creation of two survivors of the Moghilev camp: Ernő Klein and Rózsa Gottlieb.
Beginning with 2004, Romania marks the National Holocaust Remembrance Day, in memory of the thousands of Romanian citizens of Jewish nationality, deported to Transnistria beginning with October 9, 1941. This year, the Transylvanian Museum of Ethnography, a cultural institution that operates under the authority of Cluj County Council, joins this initiative by organizing an exhibition that evokes the life and work of two survivors of the Moghilev Podolski camp.
The exhibition “Between camp and art” brings a wood artist to the fore, the intarsia artist Ernő Klein, and a color artist, the painter Rózsa Gottlieb. The destinies of the two - the first coming from a family of craftsmen, the second from an environment of Jewish intellectuals - intersected during the cruel period of deportation, becoming a remarkable example of solidarity and heroism. In a hostile and inhumane environment, Ernő Klein’s child, born in the camp, also survived with the help of the young Rózsa Gottlieb who, also having a daughter of few months at the deportation time, she nursed the newborn whenever needed.
The members of the Klein and Gottlieb families were among the lucky ones: they returned home, where they worked hard, becoming useful citizens of post-World War II Romania, each leaving a legacy of craft and artistic work that tell us about talent, sensibility and aspiration for beauty.
In addition to the very important documents and personal artifacts related to the deportation period, the exhibition presents paintings, drawings by Rózsa Gottlieb and pieces decorated with the intarsia technique, executed by Ernő Klein. Most of the pieces in this last category have been recently donated to the Transylvanian Museum of Ethnography by Andrei Klein, the former child born in the Moghilev Podolski camp.
The exhibition is opened at Reduta Palace, since October 9, 2022, until November 6th of this year.