Tatiana Barbakov

Tatjana Barbakoff (August 15, 1899 – February 6, 1944), born as Tsipora Edelberg, was a ballet and Chinese style dancer. She became a ballerina in Germany. After her death, Julia Tardi-Markus, in order to honor Barbakoff, initiated the "Tatjana Barbakoff Prize" in 1986 to help to encourage young dancers.

Early life Tatjana Barbakoff was born as Tsipora Edelberg in Hasenpoth, Courland Governorate, at the time a province of the Russian Empire, today in Latvia. She was the daughter of Aizik, a Russian born Jewish butcher, and Genya, who had been born in China. She changed her name to Tsipora.

Tatjana Barbakoff, of Russian-Jewish and Chinese heritage, was a cabaret icon and international dance sensation, known for her flamboyant costumes, legendary beauty and sharp sense of humor. Barbakoff started more formal ballet training with the French ballerina Catherine Devilliers in 1927. Also in 1927, she separated from her husband. After an appearance in the Chopin Hall in Paris on May 9, 1933, she was able to leave Berlin with all her costumes and go to Paris.

Internment and death With her partner, Gert Heinrich Wollheim who was a painter, she traveled from Saarbrücken to Paris. According to a briefing note dated January 23, 1944, she was deported to Drancy internment camp near Paris. On 3 February 1944, the 67 convoy took her to Auschwitz, where on 6 February 1944 she was murdered in a gas chamber.

Portraits Waldemar Flaig : . Tatjana Barbakoff oil painting from 1927 in the Franciscan Museum in Villingen-Schwenningen Tatjana Barbakoff. Dancer and muse, with texts by Klara Drenker-Nagels, Hildegard Reinhardt, Günter Goebbels and Anja Hellhammer, club August Macke Haus Bonn, Bonn of 2003. Hildegard Reinhardt. Tatjana Barbakoff. Dancer and muse, in: World Art, Issue 2 February 2003.

Legacy In Paris, Julia Tardi-Markus, a co-dancer with Barbakoff, started the "Tatjana Barbakoff Prize" in 1986 to help to encourage young dancers. Gert Heinrich Wollheim painted a portrait of in 1928 which still hangs in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

The Düsseldorf City Museum hosts an exposition to honor Tatjana Barbakoff. It contains photographs, and some of her stage costumes, and many of her playbills. Some of Barbakoff’s stage costumes were given by Gert Wollheim’s widow, Mona Loeb (1908–1997) to Düsseldorf City Museum.