No one appreciates freedom more than Frank Gusdorf. As a young boy growing up in the early 1930's, he and his family, whose ancestors had lived in Germany for over 500 years, lost their citizenship, their property and all their personal rights during the rise of the Third Reich. Frank's father would lose his life when he was arrested and taken to the Buchenwald concentration camp after Kristallnacht in November of 1938.
Frank's escape from persecution was the Kindertransport, authorized by British Parliament to bring 10,000 Jewish children to England. He left his home in Worms and traveled to Frankfurt where he boarded a special train to Holland before arriving in London. He became a boarding school student at Macauley House College in Cuckfield, Sussex.
Meanwhile, his mother, sister and grandfather escaped to Holland and sailed to New York on the Rotterdam just before the Nazi invasion. Frank eventually joined them in America where he attended George Washington High School in Manhattan. Although Frank was classified as an "enemy alien" in the U.S. he joined the U.S. Army in 1944 and served in Europe, Panama and Korea. He was in the military for 21 years, during which time he continuously furthered his education towards a degree in electrical engineering.
His interest in art is life-long. He works in pen and ink drawings, pastels, oils, acrylics, serigraphs, woodcuts, sculpture and watercolors. His drawings and oil paintings have been exhibited at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. Recent commissions have included the San Jose Symphony Auxiliary, the San Jose Historical Museum and the Peralta Adobe - Fallon House Historic Site.