The collection consists of original art pieces by local Santa Barbara artist Erika Kahn and her collection of Dietrich Varez prints.

Erika Kahn was born in Berlin, Germany in 1925. Kahn’s family was Jewish and by the mid-1930s the family felt increasing hostility and persecution from the Nazi government. As a child, she was bullied and beaten by classmates in the local public school, but in 1935 Jewish children were segregated to Jewish-only schools. Kahn attended Theodore Herzl School and has noted her time there was considered a safe haven for children under an increasingly threatening regime. On November 9, 1938, Kristallnacht (pogrom against Jews carried out by Sturmabteilung and German Civilians), Kahn witnessed the school and her local synagogue destroyed. Soon after Kristallnacht, Kahn’s Mother escaped to Morocco and her younger brother, Erwin, was sent on a Kindertransport to England. Through Kahn’s Stepmother, Hilde, and her US visa, Erika was able to escape Germany and live in the New York. Her grandparents, Adel and Samu Fekete, and other extend family members perished in Auschwitz on September 24, 1942.

6.5 linear feet (26 art pieces)

Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Department of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained.

The collection is open for research.