Terezin Courtyard with a Pump Colored pencil drawing of a water pump in the Terezin courtyard
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)
Creator(s)
- Anna Kampusova (Artist)
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
Drawing of a water pump in the Terezin courtyard created 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 pencil on paper depicting a courtyard with indistinct figures in front of a large, shaded, 3 story building. In the foreground are 2 water pumps. Two people are at the right pump, one is pumping the handle and the other is holding a round bowl under the spigot. There is building in the background where people hang clothes over a railing and on clotheslines. In the left foreground is a partial small building and 2 people drawn in pencil, one standing in front of a person in a wheelchair. The drawing is taped to a windowpane mat with a paper taped to the back.
mat, back, on paper, black ink : 23. Terezínský dvůr s pumpou 25 [Terezin courtyard with a pump] mat, back, top right corner, pencil : KLÁ / ž mat, back, top right corner, colored pencil : 23 mat, back, top right corner, cursive, pencil : Dvorek v ghetu [Yard in the ghetto]
Corporate Bodies
Subjects
- Concentration camps in art--Pictorial works.
- World War, 1939-1945--Concentration camps--Czech Republic--Pictorial works.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Czech Republic--Terezin (Ustecky kraj)
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in art.
- Concentration camp inmates as artists--Czech Republic--Terezin (Ustecky kraj)
Genre
- Art
- Object