Drawings by children in Nazi camp speak of dreams

SUMMARY

A unique collection of some 4,500 drawings by children who were interned at the Theresienstadt concentration camp during the Holocaust still attracts attention, 75 years since their creation. Amid brutal conditions at the ghetto, the children made them during secret art classes led by artist Friedl Dicker-Brandeis, mostly in 1943-44. The drawings depict the everyday life as well hopes and dreams of returning home, helping the children cope with the cruel reality. They survived thanks to Dicker-Brandeis, who hid them in two pieces of baggage in Theresienstadt before her deportation to a death camp. They belong to Prague's Jewish museum and are on display in the Pinkas Synagogue. Visitor Alexandra Diffey from Britain said: "It's very, very moving. It is interesting. I've been thinking as I was walking around because my father was in a concentration camp, so it sort of hits home how it was for the Jews. I just think young people should really come here and see for themselves and maybe learn something." Some 35,000 victims died in Theresienstadt, also known as Terezin, during the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia. Some 87,000 others were transported from Terezin to Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps where most of them perished.

By APJan 27, 2019 2:55:25 PM IST (Published)

A visitor looks at the collection of drawings at the Jewish Museum in Prague, Czech Republic, made by Jewish children who passed through the Terezin Ghetto during WWII. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

A visitor looks at the collection of drawings at the Jewish Museum. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

Visitors look at the collection of drawings at the Jewish Museum. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

Visitors look at drawings made by Jewish children who passed through the Terezin Ghetto during WWII. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

Tourists visit the Pinkas synagogue in Prague. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

Visitors walk through the cemetery of the former Nazi concentration camp in Terezin, Czech Republic. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)