Martin Levitt:
"Everyman" Boris Lurie
(1999)
Kameraden Carl,
Boris is a fascinating storybook, on life in the Concentration Camps. He spent his youth as a prisoner of the Nazi´s. He was so young and innocent he was chosen to sweep the guards office and consequently was able to save his fathers life with a simple erasure. A wised up Italian Socialist leader told them how to survive in the camps without being a kapo. He has hundreds of incredible stories to tell in the simplest language; but instead likes to wax poetic. But it is hard being poetic when you do not have a native language. His native language was Russian and as a child learned Latvian; but studied at a German language oriented school in Riga. His current language is English and he can weave tales beautifully in it when he doesn't try to render it poetically. His English vocabulary is superb and fully expressive. He can tell you incredible stories of his life, escape, the Red Army, the American Army....etc. etc. etc. ... they incredible. It would be such a sorry thing to lose his Infories of those incredible years. His search for his mother and sisters remains is a bit of Kafkaesque literature. His father was a man of unusual ability and survival skills; in a few years he went from a concentration camp scarecrow to a wealthy New York Realtor. Despite that he encouraged his son to pursue the arts. In a way Boris is the "Everyman" of the 20th Century and in a way his father was the Faust.
By Mail on May 11th, 1999
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ABOUT MARTIN LEVITT: Born in 1926, in New York. His father, uncles and grandmother were all working artists and designers. They were émigrés from Russia around 1906. Martin Levitt served in the U.S. army in World War II and in the Israeli army in 1948. He went to the Art Students League in New York and worked as an assistant to a famous sculptor. He has since worked as a designer, artist and teacher. His philosophy has been to work and live without harming or exploiting other people or despoiling the planet; whilst drawing, painting and teaching art. — He died peacefully on November 1, 2017 in Burlington/VT. ►more
