Chance Pencil drawing of stone walls at Theresienstadt
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 17.625 inches (44.768 cm) | Width: 13.750 inches (34.925 cm)
pictorial area: Height: 2.875 inches (7.303 cm) | Width: 4.250 inches (10.795 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
Drawing 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 short stone wall. Inside on the left are 2 arches with black windows. Between them is a dark space with an ascending bridge walkway. Above the walls is a mound of earth and an outline of indistinct trees. The sky is lightly shaded with outlines of clouds and birds.
back, cursive, pencil : 2776 yu / po? Baston ? mat, back, on paper, printed, black ink : 43. Šance / Můstek za Sudety / /tužka/ 26 [Chance, Bridge over the Sudetenland, pencil] mat, back, bottom right corner, colored pencil : 43 44 mat, back, bottom right corner, pencil : KLÁ
Corporate Bodies
Subjects
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Czech Republic--Terezin (Ustecky kraj)
- World War, 1939-1945--Concentration camps--Czech Republic--Pictorial works.
- Concentration camp inmates as artists--Czech Republic--Terezin (Ustecky kraj)
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in art.
- Concentration camps in art--Pictorial works.
Genre
- Object
- Art