Douglas Beach and Tower of Refuge
Date made: 1991
Description: Watercolour painting, a depiction of Douglas Beach and Tower of Refuge, painted for a television documentary about internment in the Isle of Man (filmed January 1991). Marked '50 years later IOM 26.1.91' and signed 'Peter Midgley (Fleischmann)'. The artist and donor was interned under the latter name in Hutchinson Square, Douglas during the Second World War. MNH holds a copy of the donor's oral history interview about internment for the Imperial War Museum, in the Folk Life Survey (MNH Library and Archives).
Fleischmann was born in Berlin in 1921. His parents were Socialists who opposed the Nazis. When they died in mysterious circumstances, he was sent to an orphanage for Jewish children. Aged 16 he discovered that his name was on a Gestapo wanted list, and left Germany on one of the first kinder transports. He has a card in the HO396 series which records that he was arrested by Lancashire Police in June 1940, and held in Hutchinson Camp, with number 62471. He was released 7 October 1941.
Materials: watercolour on paper
Object name: painting
Collection: Art Collection
ID number: 1991-0106
Subject tags : #WW2INTERNMENTMUSEUMCOLLECTIONS