Portrait of a US soldier by George Byfield, a former camp inmate, after liberation

Framed watercolor portrait made for Captain William Adams Bridgforth, United States 7th Army, by Gyorgy Beifeld (George Byfield), in Dachau concentration camp after liberation in exchange for a pack of cigarettes. Byfield had been an prisoner at the camp, which was liberated by the United States 7th Army on April 19, 1945. Byfield had been deported from Budapest to a concentration camp following the German occupation of Hungary in March 1944. Gyorgy Beifeld (born Gyorgy Beamter, later George Byfield, 1902-1982) was born in Budapest, Hungary, on April 4, 1902 to Wilhelm and Hermine Hacker Beamter. His father was killed in 1917 while serving in the army during World War I. Gyorgy attended university and was trained as a lawyer, but earned his living as a stockbroker in Budapest. He was also an accomplished artist and was fluent in Hungarian, English, French, and German. On April 1, 1942, Gyorgy was conscripted into the Hungarian Labor Service (Munkaszolgalat) and sent to a camp in Pomac, Hungary. Gyorgy began painting immediately after his induction, creating watercolors of the base camp in Hungary where the company was initially stationed. On April 20, 1942, Gyorgy's company departed by train for the Russian front in Orel. Their duties included building fortifications, transporting ammunition, constructing bridges and roads, laying mines, burying the dead, and carrying away the wounded. During this time, he made a visual record of his experiences, creating over 400 drawings and watercolors. He was wounded on August 28, 1943 at Prilutskiy. At the end of 1943, Gyorgy was sent home to Budapest. On May 12, 1944, Gyorgy was arrested and held in a camp in Velence near Budapest for six months. He was assigned prisoner number 27990. On December 25, he was deported to Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany and worked as a draughtsman. In January 1945, he was transferred to Offenburg. In April, he was sent on a death march to Dachau concentration camp. The camp was liberated by the United States 7th Army on April 29, 1945. Gyorgy returned to Budapest then immigrated to Australia in 1948. Following his move to Australia, he changed his name to George Byfield and opened a tobacconist shop with his wife. He later ran a successful interior design studio. Retired Major William Adams Bridgforth participated in the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp in Germany, on April 29, 1945. At the time, he was a Captain in the United States 7th Army, European Theater, where he served as a supply officer. He was married to Burgess K. Bridgforth and they had three children. Bridgforth, age 81, died in 1997 in Johnson City, Tennessee. No restrictions on access