Through Mimi’s Eyes: A World War II Artist's Travels in 1945

In honor of Women’s History Month, I’d like to share the story of a fascinating World War II portrait artist. I have had the chance to research her travels in 1945 and have permission from her daughter, Robin Simon, to publish the following. Several photos here are courtesy of Robin Simon and have been noted as such. The watercolor artwork featured in this piece is archived at the Anne S.K. Brown Library at Brown University. The USO portraits are sourced from the Library of Congress Digital Archives. Mimi's quotes are taken from her personal narrative, also archived with the Library of Congress.

I am working on an animated film based on Mimi's travels in Europe. Research for this film has been supported by the Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection at Brown University.

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In 1945, 22-year-old Mimi Korach Lesser left her home in New York for Europe to serve a tour of Europe as a portrait artist for the USO. She traveled through France, Germany, and Eastern Europe, witnessing the birth of a new political and economic world order. Beyond her official USO duties, she drew what she saw: the physical destruction of Europe and moments of humor and humanity amid the devastation of total war. Her illustrations have a candid, journalistic style, with her unique insight as a young American woman watching World War II end.

Watercolor painting of Duren in 1945, bombed out ruins and signs in multiple languages, Photo Courtesy of Anne S.K. Brown Collection

Mimi was not a typical USO hostess, but rather half of a show billed as “Blondie and Blackie,” with another artist named Ann Schaberhaar. Mimi described their show as…

…a hectic tour of small towns, staying two or three days in a place, usually preceded by a poster tacked up somewhere announcing, "Blondie and Blackie are coming to sketch you." The men didn't know what to expect. We sometimes urged them to come to the rec. room, if there was one, or the mess hall after meals, by telling them that Ann would do a fan dance and I a bubble dance. When they found us set up to draw their pictures there was a moment's disappointment, but vanity won out and they lined up to see what an artist thought they looked like.

Photo Courtesy of Library of Congress

Photo Courtesy of Robin Simon, Personal Collection

Mimi captured portraits of about a thousand servicemen recovering in field hospitals in Europe. The men were primarily from the Third and Seventh Armies. The Third Army had fought to break out from Normandy and suffered great losses in the Battle of the Bulge. The Seventh Army had come up from Sicily and on its way to Munich. Mimi was a warm conversationalist and many of the men made a point of staying in contact with her through the remainder of the war and beyond.

Portrait: Sgt. Verlee Valentine, Courtesy Library of Congress.

Portrait: Bernard Feldman, 3rd BN, 505th Parachute Infantry (n.d.)., Courtesy of Library of Congress

Al Herrera, 649th Engineer Topographical Battalion, Courtesy of Library of Congress

Wayne Spanhanks, 1st Group, 143rd Battalion, Courtesy of Library of Congress

Robin Simon shared with me some of the letters these men wrote to Mimi. The soldiers wrote with abundant personality and friendliness, which to me shows how well Mimi must have created a great rapport with each.

Letter from Stoney: May 1945

Sit yourself on up, dear! I do need some fraternizin’. Real young feller, ain’t I? Seriously though—if I can be serious without bein’ mushy—I’m never gonna forget little bitty you.

Letter from Jeff: July, 1945

I am planning real big on our time together when you come back to Toppen. So please, sweet lady, make it so our paths meet close again and as often as we can make it happen. When I said “Mimi, you are cute,” well I really meant just that.

Letter from Harold, May 1945:

I only wish that I will be able to see you again in the near future. If when you do answer this letter I would like very much if you would send me your home address so as I know where I will be able to see you in the good old U.S.A...Tell Ann I have the picture of her flipping her hair and it really turned out swell.

Mimi and Ann’s first stop was to Paris and then a suburb called Chatou, for USO training, where they heard lectures about USO procedures and “not fraternizing.”

Following that, they began their work at a field hospital in Aachen, where Mimi drew soldiers who had been injured or fallen ill in war. At this point, the war continued, but American troops from the Western Front were making rapid progress to meet Soviet Troops reaching Berlin.

Hospital in Aachen, Germany. April 1945. Photo courtesy of Anne S.K. Brown Collection

 Mimi was in Liege, Belgium in May when victory in Europe was declared and wrote that the celebrations were muted, as many troops didn’t know whether they would be sent home, remain in Europe, or be sent to the Pacific, where fighting remained brutal, and casualties were high. In Liege, she captured this scene, with signage in the background reminding soldiers not to bring home VD (Venereal Disease) as a souvenir. 

Courtesy of Anne S.K. Brown Collection

Mimi went on her tour with an appetite for adventure and wrote that midway into her journey, she…

…decided that this was a good time to shed my virgin status which had become onerous to me…. How could I remain so aloof in this sea of destruction and heavy human emotions?

In September 1945, while on a break for R&R in Paris, Mimi met a soldier named Art and the two became close. They explored Paris together, ducking into nightclubs and chatting with locals in broken French.

Portrait of Art in Paris, under Cafe Awning. September, 1945. Photo courtesy of Robin Simon

Mimi wrote…

…Art and I were strolling in Pigalle, near the Sacre Coeur, when we heard singing. We walked toward the sound and found ourselves in the plaza in front of the church, where all of Paris was spread out below in a breathtaking panorama. There, in the rain, were four elderly people looking over the parapet and singing a love song to their city.  It was memorable.

One moonlit night, under a huge and spreading Chestnut tree on the lawn at Chatou, we made love. That was memorable, too.

Paris, September 1945. Photo Courtesy of Anne S.K. Brown Collection

Mimi, an American Jew, learned of the horrors of the Holocaust through her conversations with troops. One soldier gave her a collection of photographs of emaciated bodies his unit had uncovered.  It’s likely the photo was taken at Dachau, although it is only labeled “somewhere in Germany.” Understandably, the soldiers were haunted by what they had seen, likely having experienced moral injury from witnesses these crimes against humanity. The liberation of Dachau, in particular, proved a great strain on American troops, with allegations that they lashed out German guards, killing some after their surrender was accepted. American troops also forced local citizens to assist in burying the dead. Many Germans claimed they had no knowledge of the conditions in camps, but it is historically unlikely that Germans would not have known about the operation of camps. There were thousands of camps at the height of World War II, many near urban centers, and the deportation of Jews and other marginalized groups was both public and violent. First-hand accounts indicate that the stench of concentration camps was noticeable from miles away, particularly in warm weather.

Photo Courtesy of Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection

Mimi met refugees and camp survivors in Displaced Persons Camps. She described a conversation with a woman in Czechoslovakia who broke to her the news that all of her European family, the Korachs, had likely been murdered during the war…

In fact she knew them all very well and said they were a most respected family! She had been in a concentration camp and lived to see her whole family, except her mother, murdered. I had no idea she was Jewish until she said she had been deported. Her stories were pretty terrible. Her husband (who certainly looked the part) had been a guerilla through the war. He was the only living member of his family. She said that of a population of 14,000 Jews in Kosice only 800 had survived. She said, "I will write to find out for you if there are any Korachs left, but I feel certain they were all killed.

A couple Mimi met in Czechoslovakia. Photo Courtesy of Robin Simon

 As Mimi continued her work capturing portraits of soldiers, families around the United States wrote back to the USO thanking Mimi for her work. Their letters are sampled below, and there are far more archived with the Library of Congress:

"The picture is a perfect likeness of my husband...words fail me to describe just how happy it has made me.”

 -Mrs. Walter G. Brostrom

“I received the beautiful pictures of my son Jim & I thank you a million times. I will always keep them.”

-Mrs. Carl Lendall

“I can’t tell you just how much it meant to me and I know it will bring me happiness now and for many years to come.”

-Mrs. B. Robidas

 After the war, Mimi returned to New York and continued to work as an illustrator. In 1947, she returned to Paris and painted scenes of the post war reconstruction of Europe for “The Lamp” a publication of Standard Oil. I feel that these are some of her most striking works:

Photos Courtesy of Robin Simon 

I find Mimi’s work and her story fascinating and inspiring. The response to her portraits was glowing; they clearly provided comfort and hope to the families of the troops recovering in hospitals. Her artistic eye still gives us a clearer insight into what life was like in Europe as the war ended and cities began to rebuild. The letters she received from soldiers during the war show that she clearly made a big impression with the people she met and that her care in drawing the soldiers was deeply meaningful to them.

If you’d like to read Mimi’s unedited account, it is archived with the Library of Congress and you may find it on her page, linked here. You can find Mimi's collection at the Anne S.K. Brown Collection here.