In 1936 his parents sent him alone from Germany to distant relatives in Portland, Oregon: he was thirteen. His elder brother died the following year of antisemitic violence, and their father was held for several months in Buchenwald; in 1939 his parents managed to escape and join him in the United States. He enlisted in the American army, then came to Paris to paint.
The story
In 1936, distant relatives in Portland, Oregon, took in a thirteen-year-old boy from Germany. Otto Fried was born in Koblenz on 13 December 1922; his parents had sent him across the Atlantic alone to put him out of reach of the Nazi regime.
His elder brother Ernst died in 1937 of the effects of antisemitic violence. The following year his father was held for several months in the Buchenwald camp; in 1939 his parents managed to escape and join him in the United States. He himself was drafted into the American forces in 1943 and served in the air force, in India, China and Burma.
A graduate of the University of Oregon in 1949, he spent two years in Paris in the studio of the painter Fernand Léger, went back to New York, then settled in France after his marriage to Micheline Haardt-Joisson (1929-2017). He died at Meudon on 31 December 2020, at ninety-eight. The grave in Division 89 is in the name of the Haardt family: five inscriptions come before his, and the last line is his.
The grave
A grave that is not his but his wife's: five inscriptions of the Haardt family precede his name — “Louis HAARDT, 9 juillet 1901 – 4 février 1935”, “Gaston HAARDT, officier de la Légion d'honneur, 2 mars 1877 – 30 janvier 1937”, “Mme Gaston HAARDT, née Louise SAMUEL, Bruxelles 1871 – 1961 Paris”, then “Micheline FRIED, née HAARDT-JOISSON, 1929-2017”. The last line is his: “Otto FRIED, 13 décembre 1922 – 31 décembre 2020”. Nothing of the Germany he left at thirteen.
On site, do not miss
Five inscriptions of the Haardt family precede his. The last line: “Otto FRIED, 13 décembre 1922 – 31 décembre 2020.” Nothing of Portland, nothing of painting.
Visitors' questions
Where is Otto Fried's grave?
In Division 89, avenue Circulaire, fourth row. It is the grave of the Haardt family — his wife's — where five names precede his, from the earliest, who died in 1935, to Micheline Fried in 2017. He died on 31 December 2020, at ninety-eight.
KovalHow did he escape Nazism?
By leaving: at thirteen, his parents sent him alone to distant relatives in Portland, in the United States. He would later enlist in the American army, before coming to paint in Paris.
Adolfo KaminskyWhat became of his family?
His elder brother Ernst died in 1937, from the effects of antisemitic violence; his father was held for several months in Buchenwald in 1938, and his parents managed to escape and join him in the United States in 1939.
Charles LecocqWho rests with him?
His wife's family: Micheline Fried née Haardt-Joisson (1929-2017), and before her Louis Haardt, who died in 1935, Gaston Haardt, an Officer of the Legion of Honour, and his wife née Louise Samuel, who died in Paris in 1961.
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