{"id":1947,"date":"2008-08-17T10:22:00","date_gmt":"2008-08-17T14:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/craigzablo.com\/?p=1947"},"modified":"2018-03-04T13:20:29","modified_gmt":"2018-03-04T17:20:29","slug":"3-real-life-heroes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/?p=1947","title":{"rendered":"3 Real Life Heroes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/a>Comic book legends Neal Adams, Jack Kubert<\/span> and Stan Lee<\/span> have teamed in an effort to do what their creations are known for… to right a wrong. The only difference is this is not fiction. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Dina Gottliebova Babbitt<\/span> is an 85 year old woman<\/span> who survived Auschwitz<\/span> due to her artistic talents. Sent to the camp at the age of 19<\/span>, Ms. Gottliebova<\/span> [she was not yet married] came to the attention of the infamous Nazi, Josef Mengele<\/span>, after she painted a mural of Snow White<\/span> in an effort to raise the spirits of young children being held there. When she was taken to meet <\/span><\/span>Mengele<\/span><\/span><\/span>, Ms. Gottliebova<\/span> believed that he was about to order her execution. Instead he told her he wanted her to paint portraits of the gypsies he used in his experiments. She would also paint portraits of Nazi<\/span> officers and their families and even Mengele<\/span> himself. Ms. Gottliebova<\/span> summoned up her courage and said that if her mother would be spared the gas chamber, she would agree to his demands. Her mother was spared and Ms. Gottliebova<\/span> created the artwork. Ms. Gottliebova<\/span> and her mother both survived until the camp was liberated. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

After the war, Ms. Gottliebova<\/span> met Arthur Babbitt<\/span>, an American,<\/span> who made his living as a cartoon animator. Coincidentally, he worked on the classic “Snow White!”<\/span> Ms. Gottliebova<\/span> became Mrs. Babbitt<\/span> and moved to the United States<\/span> where she became employed as a cartoon animator<\/span> for Warner Bros., MGM <\/span>and Jay Ward Production<\/span>s. In 1973, Ms. Babbitt<\/span> was contacted by officials at the Auschwitz State Museum<\/span>. They had several of her portraits on display and wanted her to verify that she had created them. At her own expense she traveled to Poland<\/span> and confirmed that they were hers. Ms. Babbitt<\/span> believed the museum would give her the originals and keep prints for display… but that wasn’t to be.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

To this day the museum continues to refuse to return her paintings to her. Over the years she has been given a number of excuses: the education value of the paintings outweighs her rights to them [despite the fact the high quality prints are usually on display instead of the originals], that returning her paintings might encourage other survivors to take back their objects on display [somehow this logic gives trump to the museum’s rights over the true owners], and even that the paintings were the legal property of Josef Mengele<\/span> [despite receiving letters from over four dozen lawyers calling the claim “preposterous and offensive” and pointing out “a war criminal<\/span> does not deserve to enjoy the fruits of his crime.” <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The paintings still have not been returned to Ms. Babbitt<\/span>. So Neal Adams, Joe Kubert<\/span> and Stan Lee<\/span> teamed up to create a six page summary of her story that was printed in the New York Times<\/span>. They are attempting to get the word out to the world. You can view all six pages of the strip by following this link to the Times article.<\/del> The \u201cMultimedia\u201d box<\/span> in the left hand column of the Times<\/span> page will take you to the story. After you’ve read it, if you’re so inclined you can send an email to the Museum director<\/span> personally expressing your feelings.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Piotr Cywinski, Director<\/span><\/span>
\nAuschwitz-Birkenau State Museum<\/span><\/span>
\nOswiecim, Poland<\/span><\/span>
\nmuzeum@auschwitz.org.pl<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It’s nice to know that Neal Adams, Joe Kubert<\/span> and Stan Lee<\/span> don’t just create heroes — they are heroes.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Comic book legends Neal Adams, Jack Kubert and Stan Lee have teamed in an effort to do what their creations<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":912,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[61,56,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-authors","category-comics","category-crime"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/912"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1947"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20026,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1947\/revisions\/20026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}