Reginald Case 1937-2009
Max Heiliger, 1978
photomontage on paper
26 x 20 cm
(lower left): 'Reginald Case'
2009-17
© Reginald Case estate
Photo: Bridgeman images
This work and its companion, 'Nazi Berlin Cabaret', are part of a 1978 series on the theme of holocaust, including a piece called ‘Sonderbehandling (special treatment, Nazi bureaucratic term for...
This work and its companion, 'Nazi Berlin Cabaret', are part of a 1978 series on the theme of holocaust, including a piece called ‘Sonderbehandling (special treatment, Nazi bureaucratic term for killing prisoners)’, displayed at the V&A. As a child growing up in the 1940s in the United States, Case was disturbed by the postwar revelations of the horror that had taken place in Europe and began to exorcise his childhood demons in a series of collages on this theme.Max Heiliger was a fictional name created during the Nazi era under an agreement between Reichsbank president Walther Funk and Heinrich Himmler, to establish bank accounts under a false identity to launder valuables stolen from Nazi concentration and extermination camp victims. It included banknotes, jewellery and gold from teeth, wedding rings and spectacle frames. The name "Heiliger" (saint) derives from the word “heilig” (holy). In this chilling work, two comfortable bureaucrats, cosily installed by the fire, are juxtaposed with the image of a concentration camp victim on the rug in front of them.