Alfred Kantor

November 7, 1923 – January 16, 2003
Prague, Czechoslovakia

Alfred had completed the first of a two-year commercial art course at the Rotter School of Advertising when he and the other Jewish students were dismissed. His imprisonment began in Theresienstadt, continued to Auschwitz and ended in Schwarzheide where he was liberated after surviving a death march. Throughout, he sketched powerful scenes of daily life, most of which he destroyed and then re-created from memory following the war. Alfred eventually immigrated to the United States, joined the Army, and played glockenspiel in a military band. He spent the rest of his working life as a commercial artist in New York and in 1980 moved to Maine, where he became known for his depictions of the local landscape. “The Book of Alfred Kantor” was published in 1971 by McGraw-Hill and includes his 127 paintings and sketches of concentration camp life, as well as a narrative of his experiences. Alfred passed away in Yarmouth, Maine in 2003. At the time of his death he was survived by his wife, Inge; his son, Jerry, of Boston; his daughter, Monica Churchill, of Falmouth, Maine; and three grandchildren.