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Hitler and Jesus, Together

In von Brunn artwork

by
Allison Hoffman
June 17, 2009

A painting “of what appears to be Hitler and Jesus” was among the items seized from the Annapolis, Maryland, apartment of James von Brunn, according to court documents filed yesterday. FBI agents also seized 100 rounds of hollow-point bullets, a handwritten will, and a note regarding plant care in the home of the 88-year-old white supremacist charged in last week’s shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Von Brunn, a frustrated artist, was known to copy other artists’ work in his own, and among the extant works of another frustrated artist, Adolf Hitler, is an oil painting of a dark-haired Mother Mary cuddling a porcelain-faced, distinctly Aryan baby Jesus. Perhaps von Brunn was copying the artist into the same frame?

Allison Hoffman is a senior editor at Tablet Magazine. Her Twitter feed is @allisont_dc.