Mikołaj Sobczak

Recto: The intimate relationship between Józef Niemczyk and Erich Nägele began in the shelter for Poles and caused Józef’s interrogation under Paragraph 175 of the German Penal Code.
The house in the photo is Erich’s home in Tübingen, where the relationship between him and Józef developed. The painted figures are taken from two illustrations: the man taking pictures mimics Erich using his camera and was originally created by Polish illustrator Maja Berezowska. Specialized in erotic illustrations, she was the author of a series of images of Hitler caught in indecent affairs with different women.
She was sentenced to be detained in Ravensbrück’s concentration camp on account of these illegal drawings. There, she would draw other prisoners, often in sensual poses and with a certain sexual tension. This notion leads us to reflect on
how we remember and metabolize history and tragedy, and reminds us of the connection the scholar and editor Vasyl Cherepanyn posited between the tension caused by depictions of war and the one aroused by erotic imagery. The second illustration is
by William Blake and it represents the Angel of the Revelation holding a book: a reference to the notebook with poems that Erich wrote in prison.

Verso: Title Page to History of "Anabaptists", 1699.