Charcoal drawing of bunks in a cluttered barrack room
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 13.750 inches (34.925 cm) | Width: 17.625 inches (44.768 cm)
pictorial area: Height: 8.625 inches (21.908 cm) | Width: 11.625 inches (29.528 cm)
Archival History
The drawing was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1989 by Mark Talisman.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Mark Talisman
Funding Note: The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Scope and Content
Charcoal drawing of a room lined with bunk beds created by an unknown artist at Theresienstadt (Terezin) ghetto-labor camp in German occupied Czechoslovakia. The camp opened in November 24, 1941 and was in operation about 3.5 years, until May 2, 1945. The German SS imprisoned certain categories of German, Austrian, and Czech Jews in the ghetto, including many prominent intellectual or cultural figures. There was a large Technical Department where many artists were assigned to work, creating technical drawings, maps, etc. for the camp administration. Many of them secretly created works documenting the actual overcrowded, disease ridden conditions of the camp. The works were buried or hidden behind walls and recovered postwar. Roughly 140,000 Jews were sent to Theresienstadt; nearly 90,000 were sent to camps in the east where most died, and about 33,000 perished in Theresienstadt.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
No restrictions on use
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Drawing in charcoal on paper with a perforated top edge depicting the interior of a cluttered room. In the center is a 2 tiered bunkbed with objects scattered on top. Along the left wall is another bunkbed with a ladder and a window above with open drapes and a distant view of the landscape. Along the back wall are windows through which a landsc Rays of sun shining through windows light up parts of the room and cast a shadow across the floor. The drawing is taped to a windowpane mat with a paper adhered to the back.
mat, back, on paper, black ink : 1. Kavalce /uhel/ x / 20 [Bunks charcoal] mat, back, top right corner, colored pencil : 7
Corporate Bodies
Subjects
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in art.
- World War, 1939-1945--Concentration camps--Czech Republic--Pictorial works.
- Concentration camps in art--Pictorial works.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Czech Republic--Terezin (Ustecky kraj)
- Concentration camp inmates as artists--Czech Republic--Terezin (Ustecky kraj)
Genre
- Art
- Object