By Hearsay – Arthur Langerman and his collection of anti-Semitic drawings

Meeting with the Antwerp diamond dealer Arthur Langerman, on the occasion of the release of the book Drawings of the Devil A distinguished Antwerp diamond dealer, pioneer of colored diamonds, Arthur Langerman built up the largest collection in the world of anti-Semitic images before bequeathing it to a institute in Berlin which bears his name. On March 28, 1944, the Gestapo arrested his parents, deported to the Dossin barracks then to Auschwitz. Sensing the end was near, the Germans entrusted Arthur to the nursery on rue Baron de Castro in Etterbeek. An intervention by Queen Elizabeth would have suspended the deportation of around a hundred babies, including Arthur. Arthur then begins diamond cleaving training in Antwerp. He doesn't really like it but he wants to escape the poverty he experienced at all costs. In the 1980s, he specialized in cutting colored diamonds. Building up his collection little by little is a way for him to engage in therapy. A book written by José-Alain Fralon, Dessins du Diable (MEO éditions), retraces this extraordinary itinerary. Directed by Pascale Tison