Shemuel A. Katz ♦ Biography

Shemuel A. Katz was born in Vienna in 1926. After the German Nazi occupation in 1938 he escaped with his family to Hungary. He studied at high school and took piano lessons. After the German occupation of Hungary he was sent to a forced labor camp. He succeeded to escape to Budapest where he found shelter at the Glass house, a place organized  by Carl Lutz, a Swiss diplomat  who strived to save Jews who were condemned and sent to death camps by the Nazi regime  towards the end of the war.

He was liberated when the Russian Red Army took over Budapest. After the war, he started Architecture studies. He joined the "Shomer Hatzair" movement and decided to leave for Israel, Palestine then that was under the British Mandate and restricted and controlled the number of Jews allowed to enter the country. In 1946 he left Europe joining a large group of illegal immigrants who embarked on the ship called "Knesset Israel", arrived at Haifa port and was deported to a detention camp in Cyprus.

In 1947 he received permission to immigrate to Palestine. Shemuel Katz was one the founders of Kibbutz Gaaton, in Western Galilee where he lives till present days. During all his adventures, he documented the dramatic events by drawing and painting. He also made posters, postcards and graphic designs for the Shomer Hatzair and Zionist manifests.  At the beginning of his career in Israel, he drew for the children's paper "Mishmar leYeladim". During 1953-54 he was sent for advanced studies in Paris, where he got familiar with lithography,

etching, fresco, mosaics and other techniques.

In 1955 he joined the daily paper Al HaMishmar as illustrator and graphic designer. In 1962 he returned to Paris with a scholarship of the French Government. He worked for the Swiss Humoristic Magazine "Nebelspalter", in 1974 represented Israel the Memorial exhibition for Nasr-E-Din Hodja in Istanbul. He traveled to Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia. In 1979 he was granted an interview with President Saadat. In 1980 he returns to Paris on a six month scholarship at the Cite' Internationale des Arts. Shemuel Katz illustrated many children's books, some very famous as Hasamba by Igael Mosenson, and "Flat for Rent" by Lea Goldberg, which received the honor of the issuance of a postage stamp.

He was rewarded many local and International prizes, some are listed below:

2006 Prize for caricature in the memory of "Dosh", Merkaz Einav, Tel-Aviv
1998 Prize of the Gov. of Hungary at the International Festival for humor, Budapest, Hungary
1988 prize Andersen by IBBY, Basel Switzerland
1985 Prize the city of Tel-Aviv in the memory of Nahum Guttmann
1974 Prize "Nordau", Tel-Aviv
1970 Prize for Art of Humor, Expo, Montreal, Canada
1969 Medal at the International Show of Humor, Italy
1966 Second Prize "Oscar for Humor" Bruxelles, Belgium
1961 First Prize for drawing and watercolor, Biennale of young artists, Paris, France
1960 Prize for Annual Show of Humor, Boedighera, Italy
1959 Medal at the International exhibition "Art of the Book", Leipzig, Germany