Missing images : Eugeen van Mieghem and its works of art on Jewish emigrants from the Red Star Line
18
JULY
2012
The Red Star Line, Belgian shipowner controlled by American financial owners, transported approximately 2, 6 million emigrants from Europe to the US and Canada, between 1873 and 1934.
It is estimated that one million of these passengers were Jews, who came from Europe East and Russia, leaving their homes because of pogroms, poverty and religious persecution. They spent almost always the border by train andwere going in groups to the boat ports: Hamburg, Antwerp, Rotterdam and Le Havre.
Antwerp was the second port of departure of Europe (a total of 2.5 million Jews left Europe between 1850 and 1921). The most famous passengers of the Red Star Line are Golda Meir, Irving Berlin, and Albert Einstein.
The portraits that Belgian artist Eugène Van Mieghem (1875-1930) made of these Jewish emigrants are unique. Most of his work was discovered only recently. Several exhibitions were held in the United States and in Europe. In fact, his works are to be situated between photos of shetls of Roman Vishniac and those of Jacob Riis, in the Lower East Side.
The Red Star line Museum will open its doors in Antwerp in the Spring of 2013.
Speaker | Location |
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Erwin JOOS |
Pont des Arts B & C |