Holocaust Museum LA to Present TO PAINT IS TO LIVE: ART & RESISTANCE IN THERESIENSTADT

Holocaust Museum LA will present "To Paint is to Live: Art & Resistance in Theresienstadt," an exhibit featuring the work of four artists who captured daily life in the Theresienstadt ghetto in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic). The exhibit opens at the museum Feb. 15 and runs until November 30, 2024.

Artists Erich Lichtblau-Leskly, Fred Beckmann, Moritz Müller and Leo Haas endured harrowing conditions in Theresienstadt but used their art to express themselves, document life around them, celebrate culture and maintain identity. Individually, they captured the struggles of daily life in the ghetto amid hardship and death.

Born in Hruschau, then part of Austria-Hungary, Erich Lichtblau-Leskly (1911-2004) studied commercial design at the Hamburg Decoration School. He and his wife, Elsa Lichtblau, were deported and imprisoned in Theresienstadt Ghetto in 1942. Between 1942-1945 he created a pictorial ghetto diary in cartoon style but in the spring of 1945, he cut most of his artwork into pieces. Elsa hid the fragmented artwork under the floorboards of the barracks and Lichtblau-Leskly was able to retrieve it after liberation. While living in Israel during the 1950s and 1960s, he reworked these fragments into larger watercolor illustrations. Lichtblau-Leskly's artwork is part of the museum's permanent collection.

Painting became a means of survival and spiritual resistance for Lichtblau-Leskly; he later reflected, "For me not to paint would be not to live."

 

Born in Liptovský Mikuláš, Slovakia, Moritz Müller (1887-1944) was a gifted artist who graduated from the Prague Academy of Fine Arts and established an art school and auction house in Prague. In July 1943, Müller was deported to Theresienstadt where he was assigned to tend to elderly, sick German and Austrian Jews in the Urology Department. Müller harnessed his artistic skills to document the faces dying around him and created over 500 drawings during the 14 months he was imprisoned there.

Müller was transported to Auschwitz on October 1, 1944, where he is believed to have been murdered upon arrival. Prior to his deportation, Müller entrusted his artwork to a fellow prisoner and friend, Eva Schick. When Schick (who later married artist Fred Beckmann) learned that she too was to be deported, she entrusted the works to another friend in Theresienstadt who kept them until after the war.

Born in Opava, Czechoslovakia, Leo Haas (1901-1983) studied at the Fine Arts Academy in Karlsruhe and later Berlin. Upon resettling in his hometown, Leo became a well-known painter and caricaturist and ran a local printing house.

In September 1942 Haas was deported to Theresienstadt where he and other artists were coerced into creating propaganda for the Nazis. However, Haas and his fellow artists clandestinely documented the true horrors of daily life in the camp through drawings, sketches, and publications. Aware of the risks, Haas concealed his artworks in a secret compartment within his barracks' wall.

In June 1944, the SS discovered what Haas and the other artists were doing and arrested, imprisoned and brutally tortured them. Haas was subsequently deported and imprisoned in the Auschwitz, Sachsenhausen Mauthausen and Ebesee camps, forced to work on Operation Bernhard counterfeiting foreign currency.

Following liberation in May 1945, Haas returned to Theresienstadt and recovered hidden remnants of his concealed artwork. He continued his work as an artist until his death.

Friedrich (Fred) Beckmann (1908-1989) grew up in Michle, a Prague suburb, pursued architecture at the German Technical University in Prague and worked for Prague's leading architectural firms designing both corporate and private residences. Following the Nazi invasion, he was conscripted into slave labor and in 1945 was deported to Theresienstadt. His sketches there, concealed from the watchful eyes of captors, not only depicted the faces of his fellow inmates but also captured the physical structures of Theresienstadt. His intricate depictions of the physical buildings serve as tangible evidence of the camp's existence.

After liberation Beckmann returned to Prague and opened an architectural office but ultimately moved to Sydney, Australia and then to Los Angeles.

Holocaust Museum LA will host an opening reception Feb.15 at 6:30 PM. The event will feature a panel discussion, "Designing Memory," examining the impact of architecture and the experiences of those who lived through Theresienstadt. Panelists include Paulette Nessim (daughter of Fred Beckmann), architect Hagy Belzberg and Holocaust Museum LA Chief Curator Christie Jovanovic. The panel will be moderated by Holocaust Museum LA's Chief Impact Officer, Jordanna Gessler.

More information on the opening event can be found at https://www.holocaustmuseumla.org/event-details/exhibition-opening-to-paint-is-to-live-art-resistance-in-theresienstadt

More information on the exhibit can be found at https://www.holocaustmuseumla.org/topaint

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