Chef will paint your neckties
Object numberM2015/032:005
TitleChef will paint your neckties
DescriptionNewspaper clipping of article titled 'Chef will paint your neckties'. Against a background of food and cooking utensils which he uses in his job as a chef, Rafi Widder relaxes with another art which is his hobby - painting ties. The photograph of him was taken by the Associated Newspapers Ltd Sydney for an article in The Sun, January 1953.
Karel (Charles, known as Rafi) Widder was born in 1921 in Karlovy Vary, Czechoslovakia. He was a chef and pastry cook. He met his wife Ruth when she was 18 and he was 19. They were married in Theresienstadt ghetto/concentration camp on 29 January 1943 by Rabbi Unger of Brno. Somebody gave her a dress, and someone else gave her matching shoes. A piece of curtain was used as a veil. In May 1944, they were deported to Auschwitz. They were tattooed (Karel number A1919, Ruth number A4144); they were deported to other camps (he was sent to Schwartzheide, a subcamp of Sachsenhausen), and they only met up again after the war in Czechoslovakia. They got married again after the war, in Prague, because there was no paper work to show they had been married in Theresienstadt.
Ruth Widder (nee Perlhefter) was born in Dusseldorf, Germany in 1922. She was 11 when Hitler came to power, and 16 she and her parents moved to Czechoslovakia, where she studied nursing. She was deported to Theresienstadt where she met up with Rafi. In 1947 they had a daughter, Judith (Judy), and in 1949 they immigrated to Australia.
Rafi was an artistic man and painted in his spare time. He couldn’t afford canvases so he painted on tea towels nailed to a board. He was also a good pianist and was a qualified chef, opening a Viennese-style restaurant in Darlinghurst called The Fiaker (meaning horse-drawn four-wheeled carriage for hire) in Darlinghurst Road, Darlinghurst, in 1951 with a partner. The building was demolished to make way for the William Street underpass.
Karel (Charles, known as Rafi) Widder was born in 1921 in Karlovy Vary, Czechoslovakia. He was a chef and pastry cook. He met his wife Ruth when she was 18 and he was 19. They were married in Theresienstadt ghetto/concentration camp on 29 January 1943 by Rabbi Unger of Brno. Somebody gave her a dress, and someone else gave her matching shoes. A piece of curtain was used as a veil. In May 1944, they were deported to Auschwitz. They were tattooed (Karel number A1919, Ruth number A4144); they were deported to other camps (he was sent to Schwartzheide, a subcamp of Sachsenhausen), and they only met up again after the war in Czechoslovakia. They got married again after the war, in Prague, because there was no paper work to show they had been married in Theresienstadt.
Ruth Widder (nee Perlhefter) was born in Dusseldorf, Germany in 1922. She was 11 when Hitler came to power, and 16 she and her parents moved to Czechoslovakia, where she studied nursing. She was deported to Theresienstadt where she met up with Rafi. In 1947 they had a daughter, Judith (Judy), and in 1949 they immigrated to Australia.
Rafi was an artistic man and painted in his spare time. He couldn’t afford canvases so he painted on tea towels nailed to a board. He was also a good pianist and was a qualified chef, opening a Viennese-style restaurant in Darlinghurst called The Fiaker (meaning horse-drawn four-wheeled carriage for hire) in Darlinghurst Road, Darlinghurst, in 1951 with a partner. The building was demolished to make way for the William Street underpass.
Production date 1953 - 1953
Object nameletters
Materialpaper
Dimensions
- height: 165.00 mm
width: 65.00 mm
Language
- English "Chef will paint your neckties
A Kings Cross chef is preparing to paint neckties for the Royal Tour in April.
He is Rafi Widder, a 30-yearold Czech who cooks by day and paints neckties by night.
Three years ago he opened a Viennese restaurant at Kings Cross.
Many of his customers are former friends from a concentration camp, where Rafi spent two years during the war.
He still has his camp number - A1919- tattooed on his left arm.
ON SATIN
One day he saw painted neckties in a window and decided to paint some.
He took his first designs to a store and they sold well.
He's been painting two and three dozen a week ever since.
The Royal Tour neckties will be hand painted on to satin from the best design submitted by a Sydney art student.
"I rather fancy something like the Australian coat of arms, with the Union Jack in the back ground" said Rafi.
(PHOTO)
Against a background of food and cooking utensils which he uses in his job as a chef, Rafi Widder relaxes with another art which is his hobby - painting ties".
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Judy Sabag