“We went to Liege, Belgium, where we lived and worked in a tent hospital. I was so intrigued by these surroundings that I even took my sketch book into the latrine. It went everywhere with me.” (1945, A Personal Narrative)

Mimi Korach Lesser

Mimi Korach Lesser [detail from undated photo] War: World War, 1939-1945 Service Location: Germany; Czechoslovakia; Paris, France; New York Status: Civilian Place of Birth: NY

In 1944, New York commercial artist Mimi Korach decided to do her part for the war effort by volunteering to work in a Merchant Seamen's Club, sketching portraits of lonely servicemen. A USO official suggested she go to local veterans hospitals to create sketches of patients that could be mailed to their distant families. Her next stop was a two-year tour of duty doing the same in Europe for GIs recuperating in evacuation hospitals. Korach, a short, dark-haired woman, teamed with another artist, Ann, a taller blonde (they were nicknamed “Blondie and Blackie”), traveling around Europe even after the fighting stopped. They sketched hundreds of servicemen as well as street scenes in occupied Germany and other devastated countries.