Sonia Steinsapir (1912-1980), born in Russia during the Tsarist era, lived in Crimea, Berlin, and Moscow before emigrating to Paris in 1936. She became a student at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and set her sights on a career as an artist. A victim of anti-Semitism during the Occupation, she was deported to the camps at Mérignac and Poitiers, where she met internees known as Nomads, Manouches, Gypsies, Roma, and Travellers, and produced one of the rare graphic accounts of anti-Gypsy persecution in France during the Second World War. She managed to resist, escaped, and lived in hiding in Paris between 1942 and 1944.
She then resumed her life, working as an illustrator, designer, and archivist at the Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions. She continued to produce unclassifiable work that bears witness to a life marked by the upheavals of the 20th century.
This investigation, conducted by Ilsen About using numerous archives, has made it possible to reconstruct the singular destiny and paths of a turbulent and unsettled life. Sonia Steinsapir's works are featured in the collections of the Museum of Jewish Art and History (mahJ) and the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations (Mucem).
Ilsen About is a historian, researcher at the CNRS, and member of the Interdisciplinary Research Institute on Social Issues (IRIS) at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS). His research focuses on the contemporary history of the Romani people in Europe and anti-Gypsyism in the 20th century. He is the author of Lumières des Saintes. Le pèlerinage des Gitans aux Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer (Textuel, 2023).
This book was produced with the support of the Museum of Jewish Art and History (mahJ) and the Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah.
Price: €39
270 pages
Format: 16.5 x 24 cm
ISBN: 978-2-84056-891-9
