Leo Haas
Object numberM2020/020c
TitleLeo Haas
Creator Leo Haas (artist)
DescriptionPrint 3 in a portfolio of 12 lithographs by artist Leo Haas, published in Prague in 1947, which depict confronting images of life and death in concentration camps and ghettos. This print depicts a group of men in concentration camp uniform carrying a large log while one is kicked from behind by an armed SS guard. Each print in this series is accompanied by an extract of poetry by Milos Vacik, a poet jailed for anti-Nazi resistance activity, which serves as an interpretive introduction to the work:
It happened centuries ago that in the eyes of terrified men appeared the flaming letters MENE TEKEL FARES. They threatened. But only once. At the end of every journey, in fact all journeys end nowadays already, albeit through the irony of life, at the very gate, on every wall, on every stone, rail or trunk, dragging along more by despair than by force, on every coal truck in the mines, on which the eyes of hungry imagination rest, words come up like goose flesh, translated into the supermens slang ARBEIT MACHT FREI. But only the will liberates them, because the work helps to bury the bones of their confessionists into the land of the Gudruns or the unhappy miraculous other of Czenstochowa.
Leo Haas, born 15 April 1901 in Opava, Czechoslovakia, was a prominent Jewish artist practising painting and graphic work in Opava, Berlin and Vienna from 1924-1938. In 1938 when Nazi Germany annexed the Sudetenland border of Czechoslovakia which included Opava Haass work was denounced as degenerate. As a Jew and also a Communist, Haas was arrested in 1939 and deported first to Nisko labour camp then to forced labour in Ostrava. While in Ostrava he became involved in the underground, helping to smuggle people and goods out of the country. He was arrested for smuggling in August 1942 and transported to Theresienstadt one month later. He was assigned to the Technical Department, producing maps, charts, artwork and propaganda materials for the German SS camp administrators, in preparation for the June 1944 Red Cross visit. His work in the Technical Department provided access to art supplies which he and a group of other artists, including Bedrich Fritta, secretly used to depict the real horrors of ghetto life. Some artwork was smuggled out of the ghetto, while the remainder some 400 works were hidden in walls or buried. In June 1944, the artists were imprisoned in the Small Fortress and brutally tortured for information regarding the dissemination of their artworks. In October, Haas was deported to Auschwitz. One month later, he was transported to the Sachsenhausen camp, where he was assigned to a work detail counterfeiting foreign currency. In February 1945 he was transported to Mauthausen and Ebensee camps, where he was liberated. He returned to Theresienstadt to recover his hidden works.
This portfolio belonged to Trude Baumann (nee Teller, nee Weiss), who was imprisoned in Theresienstadt from 1942 until 1944, when she was deported to Auschwitz and subsequently Oederan, a subcamp of Flossenburg.
It happened centuries ago that in the eyes of terrified men appeared the flaming letters MENE TEKEL FARES. They threatened. But only once. At the end of every journey, in fact all journeys end nowadays already, albeit through the irony of life, at the very gate, on every wall, on every stone, rail or trunk, dragging along more by despair than by force, on every coal truck in the mines, on which the eyes of hungry imagination rest, words come up like goose flesh, translated into the supermens slang ARBEIT MACHT FREI. But only the will liberates them, because the work helps to bury the bones of their confessionists into the land of the Gudruns or the unhappy miraculous other of Czenstochowa.
Leo Haas, born 15 April 1901 in Opava, Czechoslovakia, was a prominent Jewish artist practising painting and graphic work in Opava, Berlin and Vienna from 1924-1938. In 1938 when Nazi Germany annexed the Sudetenland border of Czechoslovakia which included Opava Haass work was denounced as degenerate. As a Jew and also a Communist, Haas was arrested in 1939 and deported first to Nisko labour camp then to forced labour in Ostrava. While in Ostrava he became involved in the underground, helping to smuggle people and goods out of the country. He was arrested for smuggling in August 1942 and transported to Theresienstadt one month later. He was assigned to the Technical Department, producing maps, charts, artwork and propaganda materials for the German SS camp administrators, in preparation for the June 1944 Red Cross visit. His work in the Technical Department provided access to art supplies which he and a group of other artists, including Bedrich Fritta, secretly used to depict the real horrors of ghetto life. Some artwork was smuggled out of the ghetto, while the remainder some 400 works were hidden in walls or buried. In June 1944, the artists were imprisoned in the Small Fortress and brutally tortured for information regarding the dissemination of their artworks. In October, Haas was deported to Auschwitz. One month later, he was transported to the Sachsenhausen camp, where he was assigned to a work detail counterfeiting foreign currency. In February 1945 he was transported to Mauthausen and Ebensee camps, where he was liberated. He returned to Theresienstadt to recover his hidden works.
This portfolio belonged to Trude Baumann (nee Teller, nee Weiss), who was imprisoned in Theresienstadt from 1942 until 1944, when she was deported to Auschwitz and subsequently Oederan, a subcamp of Flossenburg.
Production placeCzechoslovakia
Production date 1947 - 1947
Subjectholocaust art, artists, concentration camps, survivors
Object nameprints
Materialpaper
Dimensions
- width: 480.00 mm
height: 340.00 mm
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Michael John Baumann
In appreciation to the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) for supporting this archival project.