Art News

World War II portraits of Jewish ‘counterfeiters’ donated to Holocaust museum

NEW YORK, N.Y. (AP).- A collection of rarely seen portraits of Jewish prisoners forced to work for the Nazis in a money-forging scheme fictionalized in the Oscar-winning film “The Counterfeiters” is being donated to Israel’s Holocaust museum. Heirs of the artist who created the 43 portraits formally hand over the works to Yad Vashem (yahd VAH’-shehm) at a ceremony Thursday in New York City. The portraits are by Felix Cytrin (ceeh-TRIN’), a Jewish engraver forced by the Nazis to help produce fake British pounds in a plot to destroy England’s economy. The portraits were created while Cytrin was imprisoned at a German concentration camp. They have been in his family’s hands for decades. The works