Grieving Figure among the Dead

In December 1942, the United Nations published an official declaration that for the first time officially confirmed the systematic murder of European Jews. Meidner was deeply shocked by this news and began a picture cycle devoted to the Holocaust, which he titled “Leiden der Juden in Polen” (Suffering of the Jews in Poland) or “Massacres in Poland.” This watercolor shows a lamenting man surrounded by bloody corpses, most likely the victims of a mass shooting.