Resistance Through Art

The Theresienstadt (Czech: Terezín) camp-ghetto was used as a “model ghetto” to deceive the outside world into thinking that Jewish prisoners were treated fairly and given satisfactory living conditions by the Nazis. Considered the “Kingdom of Deceit”, Terezín was falsely advertised to Jews as a self-governing, autonomous town where Jewish people could live in relative comfort until the war passed. Terezín’s deception went beyond tricking prisoners — the ghetto was also used to fool the outside world. On 23 June 1944 the International Red Cross sent a delegation to inspect the camp. In preparation for the inspection, the Nazis deported 7,503 Jews to Auschwitz to create the appearance of a less overcrowded camp. Flowers and grass were planted, prisoners were given new clothes and made a show of providing good food for them. Fake shops, schools and cafes were built, and cultural performances were put on for the delegation. The inspection went smoothly, with the Red Cross being taken on a specified route and only talking to prisoners who looked well and who had been briefed beforehand. The Nazis then returned the camp to its usual state and deportations continued.

From the very beginning, art and education were pervasive in Terezín. Many renowned artists and up-andcoming amateurs made up the ghetto population. To endure the horrible living conditions of Terezín, many prisoners (including many of the 12,000 children that were held there) created various forms of art as a means of survival. Art thus became the primary mode of resistance, therapy, expression, and survival for those imprisoned in Terezín.

One young woman somehow fashioned a mezuzah out of a piece of pipe containing imagery of a crown, Jerusalem, Rachel’s Tomb and in Hebrew script: Kotel Hamaravi, Yerushalayim and Kever Rachel Imenu.

On the bottom she added her name, Edith Simon and Thereisenstadt 1942.

Of the 140,000 Jews that were imprisoned in Terezín, 35,000 died within the ghetto from starvation and disease. Another 88,000 were deported again to concentration camps in the East, such as the AuschwitzBirkenau death camp, where they inevitably perished. Edith Simon was amongst the many who never made it out alive. Although 99% of the Thereisenstadt children were murdered, over 4,500 drawings by them survived, secretly kept in two suitcases.

May 2024

Times listed in date boxes are for Los Angeles (zip code 90045.) For other locations, see inside back cover.