Leo Bendel

Leo Bendel (born 1868 in Strezwo, Poland, then Galicia, Austria-Hungary; died 30 March 1940 in Buchenwald concentration camp) was an Austrian-born German Jewish tobacco dealer and art collector.

[1][2] In 1935 he was dismissed from the position of general agent for the Job Cigarette Papers company because he was Jewish.

[3] Together with his wife Else Bendel, he fled Nazi Germany, and between 1935 and 1937 he sold his art collection to finance his escape.

After the annexation of Austria in 1938, Bendel was arrested at the beginning of September 1939 and deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar.

[5] Leo Bendel's collection consisted of paintings, drawings, watercolors and etchings by Carl Spitzweg, Wilhelm Trübner, Walter Leistikow and Hans Thoma.