Simon Gutman creating poster for the film 'The Soviet Latvia'

This is a picture of me, photographed as I was drawing the poster in 1951 for the film "The Soviet Latvia? in 1951. In order to print it I had to acquire permission at Glavlit [the State Committee on Literature], get approvals from numerous authorities, and obtain all the rights. This photo was published in the newspaper ?Kurzemsky Golos?.

The story was the same with my caricatures: I had to approve them with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the highest level of bureaucracy. I was summoned to the ministry, I had serious talks with the officials about politics, the current international situation, I presented my views and was explained the official position. My political cartoons were published in "The Soviet Latvia? - the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Latvia, and general caricatures in the magazine ?Dadzis? (?Burdock?). I still have an extensive archive of my caricatures, but I have handed over my film posters - the originals - to the Latvian Cinema Museum.

The Centropa Collection at USHMM

The Centropa archive has been acquired by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. USHMM will soon offer a Special Collections page for Centropa.

Academics please note: USHMM can provide you with original language word-for-word transcripts and high resolution photographs. All publications should be credited: "From the Centropa Collection at the United States Memorial Museum in Washington, DC". 

Please contact collection [at] centropa.org (collection[at]centropa[dot]org).