Berkley pushes for return of artwork

Suzanne Struglinski

Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2005 | 11:06 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., hopes to use a trip to Poland this week to push for the return of paintings made in a Jewish concentration camp to the artist who made them.

Since 1998, Berkley has been working on behalf of artist Dina Babbitt, a Holocaust survivor and mother of Las Vegas resident Michele Babbitt-Kane, to get paintings she made during her time held at Auschwitz returned to her.

Babbitt's captors discovered she was an artist and forced her to paint pictures of other inmates. Decades later, the Polish government found the paintings and traced them back to Babbitt but would not return them to her.

Congress approved a bill Berkley sponsored in 2002 that called for the State Department to negotiate with the Polish government to return the art to Babbitt, but she still does not have the paintings.

"These are works of art that Dina Babbitt produced with her own hands under unspeakable conditions, and she is asking that these portraits be returned to her ownership," Berkley said in a statement. "These negotiations are on-going, and I am hopeful that by being there in person, I can spur further progress on resolving this issue of great importance to Dina Babbitt and her family."

Berkley leaves for Poland today as part of a U.S. delegation, including Vice President Dick Cheney, traveling to ceremonies ceremonies commemorating the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps.

"I am honored and humbled to represent Congress and the American people at this week's ceremonies, and as one who lost members of my own family to the Holocaust, I have a deep sense of personal connection to these days of remembrance," Berkley said in an issued statement.

"As a member of Congress and a member of the Jewish faith, attending these ceremonies is for me a symbol of democracy's triumph over the forces of hatred and oppression," her statement noted. "It is also part of my personal commitment to seeing that future generations in Nevada and around the world are taught the lessons of the Holocaust and the role every individual can play in ensuring that such atrocities never take place again."

Berkley hopes to bring up the subject of the paintings in a meeting with Cheney, other members of the U.S. delegation, and high-ranking Polish government officials. That meeting is already set for discussion of various issues between the two countries. She will extend her stay to Friday, after the ceremonial activities to participate in the meeting.

"This issue will not be unknown to the Polish government," Berkley said. "We have been exchanging correspondence for years."

Berkley said up to this point it has been an all-or-nothing scenario, but she hopes to find a compromise. She said the Polish government has suggested giving the drawings back to Babbitt, but they would need to be returned after her death. But Berkley said this is not acceptable because Babbitt wants to keep them for her children and future generations.

"Mrs. Babbitt is not getting any younger," Berkley said. Babbitt is in her 80s, Berkley's spokesman said.

Berkley said retrieving the paintings became a "mission" for her after someone in the Polish government said that if Babbitt wanted to keep the drawings so badly, she would have taken them with her when she left Auschwitz.