Dromedaris 1912

This is Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita’s woodcut of a Dromedaris, residing in the collection of the Rijksmuseum. Jessurun de Mesquita, a Sephardic Jew in the Netherlands, tragically died in Auschwitz in 1944. This image of a dromedary at rest invites us to consider themes of identity, displacement, and survival under duress. There is a certain irony in the fact that Jessurun de Mesquita, who faced immense persecution due to his Jewish identity, created an image of an animal often associated with desert landscapes and nomadic cultures. The contrast of the animal’s organic form against the rigid, geometric background can be understood as a metaphor for the tension between freedom and confinement. What might it have meant for Jessurun de Mesquita, living under Nazi occupation, to depict an animal so intimately tied to journeys across vast distances? Is the camel a representation of resilience, or a somber reflection on the loss of freedom?