Education
Born into a jewish family he studied art history at the Technische Universität Darmstadt and then, in 1906, at the University in Berlin Heinrich Wölfflin.
Born into a jewish family he studied art history at the Technische Universität Darmstadt and then, in 1906, at the University in Berlin Heinrich Wölfflin.
Westheim published monographs on Oskar Kokoschka, Wilhelm Lehmbruck, and Mexican sculpture. His German citizenship was stripped from him in 1935. He moved to Paris the same year.
Despite his exile status, Westheim was considered an enemy alien in France at the beginning of the war and was interned.
Shunted from camp to camp (five in all) he later referred to this as his "Tour de France." As France fell to the Germans, he escaped his internment camp in 1941, fleeing France through the European Research Council (Emergency Rescue Committee).