Yva (26 January 1900 – 31 December 1944) was the professional pseudonym of Else Ernestine Neuländer-Simon who was a
German Jewish
The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (''circa'' 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish ...
photographer renowned for her dreamlike,
multiple exposed images. She became a leading photographer in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
during the
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is al ...
.
When the
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...
came to power, she was forced into working as a
radiographer
Radiographers, also known as radiologic technologists, diagnostic radiographers and medical radiation technologists are healthcare professionals who specialize in the imaging of human anatomy for the diagnosis and treatment of pathology. Radi ...
. She was deported by the
Gestapo
The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe.
The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...
in 1942 and murdered, probably in the
Majdanek concentration camp
Majdanek (or Lublin) was a Nazi concentration and extermination camp built and operated by the SS on the outskirts of the city of Lublin during the German occupation of Poland in World War II. It had seven gas chambers, two wooden gallows, a ...
during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
Early life
Else Ernestine Neuländer was born on 26 January 1900 in Berlin as the youngest child of a Jewish merchant and a
milliner
Hat-making or millinery is the design, manufacture and sale of hats and other headwear. A person engaged in this trade is called a milliner or hatter.
Historically, milliners, typically women shopkeepers, produced or imported an inventory of ...
. Her father died when she was twelve and her mother supported the nine siblings with her hatmaking. Neuländer probably was a student at the
Lettehaus of Berlin, and completed her schooling and a six-month internship to learn her craft.
Career
In 1925, Neuländer established her own photographic studio using the professional pseudonym Yva in a favorable location, near the avenue of
Kurfürstendamm
The Kurfürstendamm (; colloquially ''Ku'damm'', ; en, Prince Elector Embankment) is one of the most famous avenues in Berlin. The street takes its name from the former ''Kurfürsten'' (prince-electors) of Brandenburg. The broad, long boulevar ...
. In 1926, she had a brief collaboration with the painter and photographer
Heinz Hajek-Halke
Heinz Hajek-Halke (1898–1983) was a German experimental photographer and educator who co-founded the Fotoform group with Otto Steinert.
Life and work
Heinz Hajek-Halke, born in Berlin, Germany in 1898, the son of Paul Halke. He spent part of ...
, but due to a copyright dispute, they severed their partnership. Her brother, Ernst Neuländer, was a co-owner of the modeling salon Kuhnen and he hired her to shoot his models. She was able to publish ten photographs in ''
Die Dame'' in 1927, which served as a breakthrough to the top fashion magazines of the day. She embraced the modernist approach using technical composition and avant-garde imagery, both capturing the sexual revolution of the period and emphasizing the female form in ungendered ways, which allowed her flexibility as an artist. Her decision to enter the field was itself a challenge to the accepted norm of the day, which saw men as artists and women as their passive models.
By 1927, Yva had become known for specializing in fashion, nudes, and portraiture, but increasingly she recognized the commercial aspects for photography and was one of the first professionals who worked in advertising. One such ad was a campaign done for "Amor Skin" which used multiple exposures of the film, to create dreamlike,
surrealist
Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...
images. Within a short time, she had establish a reputation for her innovative imagery and became a contributor to magazines, photographic journals and periodicals including ''
Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung
The ''Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung'', often abbreviated ''BIZ'', was a German weekly illustrated magazine published in Berlin from 1892 to 1945. It was the first mass-market German magazine and pioneered the format of the illustrated news magazine. ...
'', ''Die Dame'', the fashion magazine ''
Elegant Welt'', and '. She also participated in international exhibitions, including the 1929 "Film und Foto" exhibit in
Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...
, the 1930 ''Das Lichtbild'' exhibit held in
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
, the 1932 First International Biennial of Photographic Art ( it, Biennale Internazionale d'Arte Fotografica) held in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
and then in 1933, she participated in both the annual international Parisian salon of nude photography ''La Beauté de la femme'' and the London
Royal Photographic Society
The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, commonly known as the Royal Photographic Society (RPS), is one of the world's oldest photographic societies. It was founded in London, England, in 1853 as the Photographic Society of London with ...
′s "The Modern Spirit in Photography" exhibition.
Yva was represented by
Schostal Schostal Photo Agency (Agentur Schostal) was an Austrian press photo agency, named for its founder, Robert F. Schostal.
Photographers
The Agency represented 408 photographers. Some are still of renown, such as Trude Fleischmann, Kitty Hoffmann, , ...
Photo Agency (Agentur Schostal)
[Rebecca Madamba (2008) The Schostal Agency: A Finding Aid for the Schostal Agency Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Thesis of the Honours Bachelors of Arts, Studies in Arts and Culture, Concentration in Curatorial Studies, Brock University.] From 1929 Yva's photographic "stories" appeared in the
Ullstein Verlag
The ''Ullstein Verlag'' was founded by Leopold Ullstein in 1877 at Berlin and is one of the largest publishing companies of Germany. It published newspapers like '' B.Z.'' and ''Berliner Morgenpost'' and books through its subsidiaries ''Ullstein B ...
′s '. She had been contracted to produce 27 montages, but only 20 appeared before the magazine was forced to close. The photo strips told in action sequence the story of young women arriving from the provinces to the Berlin metropolis to seek their fortunes and represent a technical step between static pictures and motion picture films. In 1933, even though the
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...
began shutting down Jewish owned businesses and published her name on a list of undesirables, Yva decided to expand her business. In part, the ambiguity of the Nazi policies, her assimilation into the non-Jewish community, and her employment of ten assistants who were not Jewish, led Yva to a false sense of safety. She did not experience
anti-Semitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
from her advertising and fashion clients, and first moved to a larger studio on Bleibtreustraße before relocating again the following year to Schlüterstraße, shortly after her marriage. In 1934, she married Alfred Simon, who gave up his own career to manage the business aspects of Yva's firm.
Yva hired a young assistant, Helmut Neustädter in 1936, who would later become the well-known fashion photographer
Helmut Newton
Helmut Newton (born Helmut Neustädter; 31 October 192023 January 2004) was a German-Australian photographer. The ''New York Times'' described him as a "prolific, widely imitated fashion photographer whose provocative, erotically charged black-a ...
. That same year, she
Aryanized
Aryanization (german: Arisierung) was the Nazi term for the seizure of property from Jews and its transfer to non-Jews, and the forced expulsion of Jews from economic life in Nazi Germany, Axis-aligned states, and their occupied territories. I ...
her firm and transferred ownership to her friend, the art historian
Charlotte Weidler
Charlotte Weidler (1895–1983) was a German art dealer, curator and art historian. Her dealings concerning artworks from the collections of Paul Westheim and Alfred Flechtheim during the Nazi–era have been the focus of several high-profile lawsu ...
, to enable the business to continue operations. Yva made plans to emigrate, after receiving an offer of employment from ''
Life
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...
'' to work in New York City. Her husband convinced her to abandon the plan and remain in Germany, hoping that things would improve, because he could not envision starting over in a new place in which he didn't even speak the language. Simon had guessed wrong, as in 1938 Yva was banned from practicing photography by a new series of regulations and forced to close her studio. She worked as an assistant in the radiography department of the Jewish Hospital of Berlin until 1942. Some efforts were made in 1942 for the couple to leave Germany, as after their arrest 34 crates of their belongings, most full of her photographic furnishings, were identified at the
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
port. Twenty-one of the crates were destroyed in a bombing and the other 13 were auctioned to offset the costs of their storage.
Else and Alfred Simon were arrested by the
Gestapo
The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe.
The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...
on 1 June 1942 and on 13 June were sent via "15 Osttransport" to the extermination camps. Their transport was supposed to go to the
Sobibór extermination camp
Sobibor (, Polish: ) was an extermination camp built and operated by Nazi Germany as part of Operation Reinhard. It was located in the forest near the village of Żłobek Duży in the General Government region of German-occupied Poland.
As a ...
, but on the way the train was moved to a side track at
Lublin
Lublin is the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the center of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin is the largest Polish city east of t ...
, Poland and 1030 prisoners were selected to go on to Sobibór. The remaining prisoners, how many remains unclear, were sent to the
Majdanek concentration camp
Majdanek (or Lublin) was a Nazi concentration and extermination camp built and operated by the SS on the outskirts of the city of Lublin during the German occupation of Poland in World War II. It had seven gas chambers, two wooden gallows, a ...
. No transport lists for this deportation have clarified the whereabouts of the couple, though the Jewish Registry at
Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem ( he, יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against th ...
shows Alfred Simon was murdered at Majdanek. No record of Yva's death has surfaced. It is probable that both of them were murdered upon arrival at a camp, probably in 1942. Else Ernestine Neuländer was officially declared dead on 31 December 1944 and ''
Stolperstein
A (; plural ; literally 'stumbling stone', metaphorically a 'stumbling block') is a sett-size, concrete cube bearing a brass plate inscribed with the name and life dates of victims of Nazi extermination or persecution.
The project, initiat ...
e'' were placed outside her last home at Schlüterstraße 45 on 29 November 2005.
Legacy
In 2001, a retrospective of Yva's work was featured at the Hidden Museum (german: link=no, Das Verborgenes Museum) in
Charlottenburg
Charlottenburg () is a Boroughs and localities of Berlin, locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Established as a German town law, town in 1705 and named after Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, Queen consort of Kingdom ...
. The following year, her photographs were featured in an exhibit at the
Stadtmuseum Berlin. In 2002, ''Yva: Photographies 1925–1938'', a biography and evaluation of her work and contributions to photography was written by Marion Beckers and Elisabeth Moortgat and published in German and English by Wasmuth Publishing.
Photo gallery
File:Yva (attr) Female semi-nude 1920s.jpg, Female semi-nude 1920s
File:Yva Charleston 1926-1927.jpg, Charleston 1926-1927
File:Yva Beine 1927-28.jpg, Legs 1927-1928
File:Yva The Japanese dancer Takebayashi 1929.jpg, The Japanese dancer Takebayashi 1929
File:Yva Ramona in the little flying machine 1929.jpg, Ramona in the little flying machine 1929
File:Yva Fashion Photo Bathing Suit Modell Schenk c1930.jpg, Bathing Suit Model Schenk ca. 1930
File:Yva Fashion Photo Modell Jantzen c1932.jpg, Fashion Model Jantzen ca. 1932
File:Yva Lady reading newspaper c1932.jpg, Lady reading newspaper ca. 1932
File:Yva Ohne Titel (Rauchende) c1932.jpg, Untitled (Smoking) ca. 1932
File:Yva Danse c. 1933.jpg, Danse ca. 1933
File:Karin Stilka photo by Yva.jpg, Karin Stilke modeling for Yva
File:KarinStilke.jpg
References
Citations
Bibliography
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Yva
1900 births
1944 deaths
Jewish women artists
Photographers from Berlin
German women photographers
Fashion photographers
People who died in Majdanek concentration camp
German Jews who died in the Holocaust
20th-century German women