El Pintor / Jef Last - Wat Hassan zag - 1943

Rare specimen

Between 1941 and 1944, during the German occupation, a remarkably beautiful series of children's books and games appeared, created by a mysterious character who called himself 'El Pintor.'

The New Art School in Amsterdam
Jacob Kloot and Galinka Ehrenfest jointly created the character El Pintor.
He managed the affairs of the New Art School and also handled the secretariat as a jack-of-all-trades. At the age of twenty-five, he founded the trading company Corunda, which published several titles in the El Pintor series and a few other children's books.
They met each other in 1935 through their mutual teacher and friend, Paul Citroen, at the Nieuwe Kunstschool in Amsterdam. -also the little Paulienke Citroen came to their house, and Chaja Goldstein-.
There was no such thing as a collective, such as El Pintor is sometimes called. All employees were managed by Jacob and Galinka.

The end of El Pintor
In June 1943, Jacob was arrested in Leiden, transported to Westerbork and Sobibor, where he was almost immediately murdered after arrival.
Galinka knew nothing of her fate and lived under great pressure. She took over the management of the company and also continued the resistance activities. In 1944, she managed to produce two more issues, but in the final phase of the occupation, production came to a halt.

Publisher Corunda was also a cover for illegal activities. The income, including that from the German market, was used through the company to support those in hiding and other resistance work.
Illustrations were mainly created by Galinka Ehrenfest; picture books emerged between 1941 and 1943.
For much more information: Jewish Virtual Museum

Josephus Carel Franciscus (Jef) Last (The Hague, May 2, 1898 – Laren, February 15, 1972) Dutch revolutionary, poet, prose writer, translator, and traveler.
In May 1940, Jef Last, a former Spain fighter, had to go into hiding immediately, but if necessary, he could turn to his friend and publisher George Kroonder in Bussum.
During World War II, in 1941, he was a co-founder of the ISB version (International Socialist Movement) of the resistance paper De Vonk.

Book description

What Hassan saw / [The Painter]
Author: El Pintor
Employee: Josephus Carel Franciscus Last (1898-1972)
Year: [ca. 1943]
Publisher: [n.p.: n.p.]
Series: El Pintor's travels
Annotation: Text: Jef Last (source: Theo Gielen)
Annotation provenance
Handwritten assignment on the back of the front cover probably indicates Jewish-Hague.
Rijnveld family, Holocaust survivors.
Dating: not in Brinkman; based on K-numbers estimated between 1941 and 1948.
Front cover mentions: K 128. - On the last page: K 374. - Back cover mentions: G.R.M.12 and f. 1,30.
Extent: [16] p
Illustration: black and white and colored illustration.
Size: 19 × 20 cm
ISBN: (spiral binding)


signs of use and coloration over time
Scratches and old stains on edges and flat covers.
Good and complete copy in the original cover (without publisher mention).