El libro negro del terror Nazi en Europa (The Black Book of Nazi Terror in Europe)
Conceived in the winter of 1942–43 at the height of the Second World War by a group of political refugees in Mexico City, the 'Black Book of Nazi Terror' was coordinated by Hannes Meyer when he was the business director of the Taller de Gráfica Popular in Mexico City. Meyer also selected the illustrations and solicited help of TGP artists for the prints. Mexican President Don Manuel Avila Camacho sponsored the book along with by Dr Manuel Prado (President of Peru) and Dr Eduardo Benes (exiled President of Czechoslovakia). The book comprises 286 pages, 164 photographs and 50 print illustrations. The texts are written by 55 authors and 24 visual artists. The contributors come from 16 countries. The writers include Thomas Mann, Anna Seghers and Leon Feuchtwanger, and the TGP artists, include Leopoldo Méndez, Pablo O'Higgins and Alfredo Zalce. With its shocking photographs of Nazi crimes and its victims the book presented the horrifying truth of Nazi atrocities to the world. The essays also cover Nazi terrors as well as resistance. The book opens with a dedication ‘A todos los que murieron. A todos los que están luchando’ (‘To all those who died. To all those who are fighting’) accompanied by an illustration by Frans Masereel showing a skeleton leading a large group of people. The book is one of the earliest accounts of the horrors of fascism and it contains some of first depictions of the atrocities carried out by the Nazis. Leopoldo Méndez’s print of people being loaded onto a train to be taken to a concentration camp is perhaps the earliest treatment of this subject in a print.
Artwork Details
- Title: El libro negro del terror Nazi en Europa (The Black Book of Nazi Terror in Europe)
- Author: Alexander Abusch (German, 1902–1982)
- Author: Theodor Balk (Czechoslovakian, 1900–1974)
- Author: Ferdinand Bruckner (Austrian-German, 1891–1958)
- Author: Emilian Bukov (Moldavian, 1909–1984)
- Author: Antonio Castro Leal (Mexican, 1896–1981)
- Author: Lion Feuchtwanger (German, 1884–1958)
- Author: Bruno Frank (German, 1887–1945)
- Author: Bruno Frei (German, 1897–1988)
- Author: Francisco Frola (Italian, active 1943)
- Author: Rudolf Fuerth (German, active 1943)
- Author: Tomas Hazebrok (Belgian, active 1943)
- Author: Hubertus Prince of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg (German, 1906–1984)
- Author: Walter Janka (German, 1914–1994)
- Author: Erich Jungmann (German, 1907–1986)
- Author: Leo Katz (Leo Katz, American, born Roznau, Czech Republic [then Austria-Hungary] 1887–1982 Bronx, New York)
- Author: Henri de Kérillis (French, 1889–1958)
- Author: Egon Erwin Kisch (Austrian, 1885–1948)
- Author: Heinrich Knudsen (German, active 1943)
- Author: Sava Kosanovich (Yugoslavian, died 1956)
- Author: Hans Kruus (Estonian, 1892–1976)
- Author: Leo Lambert (active 1943)
- Author: Lydia Lambert (active 1943)
- Author: Leonid Lenov (Russian, 1899–1994)
- Author: Vicente Lombardo Toledano (Mexican, 1894–1968)
- Author: Heinrich Mann (German, 1871–1950)
- Author: Thomas Mann (German, Lübeck 1875–1955 Zürich, Switzerland)
- Author: Paul Mayer (active 1943)
- Author: Paul Merker (German, 1894–1969)
- Author: Antonio Mije García (Spanish, 1905–1976)
- Author: Mario Montagnana (Italian, 1897–1960)
- Author: Niebre (Latvian, active 1943)
- Author: Pierre van Passen (Dutch - North American, 1895–1968)
- Author: Petro Panch (Ukrainian, 1891–1978)
- Author: Lenka Reinerová (Czechoslovakian, 1916–2008)
- Author: Juan Rejano (Spanish, 1903–1976)
- Author: Ludwig Renn (German, 1889–1979)
- Author: Kurt Rosenfeld (German, 1877–1943)
- Author: Mikhail Sholokhov (Russian, 1905–1984)
- Author: Max Schroeder (German, active 1943)
- Author: Anna Seghers (German, 1900–1983)
- Author: Simkus (Latvian, active 1943)
- Author: André Simone (Czechoslovakian, 1895–1952)
- Author: Jeanne Stern (active 1943)
- Author: Kurt Stern (active 1943)
- Author: Geneviève Tabouis (French, 1892–1985)
- Author: Aladár Tamás (Hungarian, 1899–1992)
- Author: Simone Tery (French, 1897–1967)
- Author: Aleksey Tolstoy (Russian, 1883–1945)
- Author: Bodo Uhse (German, 1904–1963)
- Author: Antonio Velao (Spanish, 1884–1959)
- Author: Franz Carl Weiskopf (Czechoslovakian, 1900–1955)
- Author: L. Weiss (active 1943)
- Author: Józef Wittlin (Polish, 1896–1976)
- Artist: Ignacio Aguirre (Mexican, San Sebastián, Jalisco 1900–1990 Mexico City)
- Artist: José Bardasano (Spanish, 1910–1979)
- Artist: Ángel Bracho (Mexican, Mexico City 1911–2005)
- Artist: L. Brodata (Russian, active 1943)
- Artist: Isaak Izrailevich Brodsky (Russian, 1884–1939)
- Artist: José Chávez Morado (Mexican, 1909–2002)
- Artist: Corsair (North American)
- Artist: James D. Egleson (American, born Canada, Quebec 1907–1982)
- Artist: William Gropper (American, New York 1897–1977 Manhasset, New York)
- Artist: Edward Duff (American, active 1943)
- Artist: Käthe Kollwitz (German, Kaliningrad (Königsberg) 1867–1945 Moritzburg)
- Artist: Kukrinski (Russian, active 1943)
- Artist: Enrique Fernández Ledesma (Mexican, Pinos, Zacatecas 1888–1939 Mexico City)
- Artist: Robert Mallary (American, 1917–1997)
- Artist: Frans Masareel (Belgian, 1899–1972)
- Artist: Leopoldo Méndez (Mexican, 1902–1969)
- Artist: Hannes Meyer (Swiss, 1889–1954)
- Artist: Pablo Esteban O'Higgins (American, Salt Lake City, Utah 1904–1983 Mexico City)
- Artist: Gonzalo de la Paz Pérez (Mexican, 1909–2001)
- Artist: V. Scheglov (Russian, active 1943)
- Artist: Schedrin (Russian, active 1943)
- Artist: Nikolai Zhukov (Russian, 1908–1973)
- Artist: Boris Yefimov (Russian Ukranian, 1900–2008)
- Artist: Alfredo Zalce (Mexican, Pátzcuaro, Michoacán 1908–2003 Morelia)
- Publisher: El Libro Libre , Mexico City
- Printer: Talleres Gráficos de la Nación, Mexico, D.F.
- Date: 1943
- Medium: Letterpress, photographs, lithographs, linocuts (reproduced photo-mechanically)
- Dimensions: 8 11/16 × 6 11/16 in. (22 × 17 cm)
- Classification: Books
- Credit Line: A. Hyatt Mayor Purchase Fund, Marjorie Phelps Starr Bequest, 2022
- Object Number: 2022.356
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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