Mauricio Amster Cats: A Life Dedicated to Art & Social Change Early Life and Education (1907-1936) Mauricio Amster Cats was born in 1907 in Lemberg, Ukraine (now Lviv), into a Sephardic Jewish family. He completed his initial education in Lviv before moving to Austria in 1927, leaving his family behind – tragically, his parents later perished in the Nazi concentration camp at Belzec. His attempts to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna were unsuccessful, leading him to Berlin where he honed his skills at the Reimann School between 1927 and 1930. Facing economic hardship durin…