Lili Rilik-Andrieux

Lili Rilik-Andrieux, née Abraham, was born in Berlin to a wealthy, cultured family. Her father was a respected notary and Albert Einstein was a family acquaintance. She studied art at the Hochschule fur Kunsterzeichnung in Berlin from 1933-37. In 1938 she went to Paris to continue her studies at the Ranson Academie.

After the German invasion of France, in May 1940, she was taken to a transit center in Alençon. In June she was transferred to Gurs, where she was held until March 1941. From there she was moved to the Terminus hotel in Marseille, where women and children were kept under guard while waiting for emmigration permits. In September 1941 she was interned for a second time in Gurs until November, when she was returned to the Terminus. Rilik-Andrieux remained at this hotel until August 1942. During August or September 1942 she was sent to the camp at Les Milles, along with all the other women and children who had been kept in hotels of Marseille. She contracted typhus and was hospitalized in Aix-en-Provence. Once discharged, she joined the underground movement. After the war Rilik-Andrieux remained in Aix-en-Provence, working as a translator for the American army. In 1946 she emigrated to the United States, where she died on 13 June 1996.

Some of her paintings showing scenes of life in the camp at Gurs are including in the art collection of Beit Lohamei Haghetaot (Ghetto Fighters' House Museum). Others are in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.

(Dr Pnina Rosenberg)

References

Gabrielle Mittag. Es gibt nur Verdammte in Gurs: Literatur, Kultur und Alltag in einen Südfranz&omul;sischen Internierungslager, 1940-1941. Attempto-Verlag, Tübingen, 1996.

Miriam Novitch. Spiritual Resistance – 120 Drawings from Concentration Camps and Ghettos 1940-1945. The Commune of Milan, Milan, 1979.