Номер объектаM2018/023:002
ОписаниеPen ink wash drawing, created by Joseph (Jo) Adolf Spier in Terezin, 1943. It depicts a dormitory scene in Theresienstadt, or perhaps a work area where inmates are also required to sleep. The subdued tones of the work contributes to the bleakness of the setting. The item was donated by Sally Glass; her husband John Glass was given the work by Spier.
Jo Spier was one of many artists working from within the walls of the Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp in German occupied Czechoslovakia. Put to work in the Werkstatte fur Kunstgewerbe und Gebrauchsmalerei (Workshop for Arts and Crafts and Utility Painting), he was forced to produce propaganda drawings of Theresienstadt and created the artwork for the commemorative album ‘Bilder aus Theresienstadt (Images from Theresienstadt)’, presented as souvenir to Nazi leaders. When the Red Cross made their official visit to the camp in 1944, Jo was touted as a representative of Dutch Jewry. His artistic talents were also used in the in the 1944 propaganda film ‘The Fuhrer Gives the Jews a City.’ Throughout this period Spier and his contemporaries were utilising the art supplies at their disposal to create realistic and clandestine depictions of life inside Terezin. Work produced by Jo Spier, as well as Leo Haas, Helga Weissova Hoskova, Fritz Taussig, known as Fritta, Karel Fleischmann and Frantisek Petr Kien, depict the true and concealed horrors of life within the camp.
Spier was born on 26 June 1900, in Zutphen, Netherlands, to a Jewish couple; the oldest of three boys. In 1924, he began working for the newspaper De Telegraaf as an artist an illustrator and married Albertine Sophie Vane Raalte in 1925; they had three children. In 1940, he was fired for being Jewish and in 1943, he was arrested and sent to Westerbork for producing a satirical cartoon of Hitler. In the same year, he and his family were sent to Terezin. Post war, they migrated to the U.S and settled in New York. Joseph Spier died in May 1978.
Jo Spier was one of many artists working from within the walls of the Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp in German occupied Czechoslovakia. Put to work in the Werkstatte fur Kunstgewerbe und Gebrauchsmalerei (Workshop for Arts and Crafts and Utility Painting), he was forced to produce propaganda drawings of Theresienstadt and created the artwork for the commemorative album ‘Bilder aus Theresienstadt (Images from Theresienstadt)’, presented as souvenir to Nazi leaders. When the Red Cross made their official visit to the camp in 1944, Jo was touted as a representative of Dutch Jewry. His artistic talents were also used in the in the 1944 propaganda film ‘The Fuhrer Gives the Jews a City.’ Throughout this period Spier and his contemporaries were utilising the art supplies at their disposal to create realistic and clandestine depictions of life inside Terezin. Work produced by Jo Spier, as well as Leo Haas, Helga Weissova Hoskova, Fritz Taussig, known as Fritta, Karel Fleischmann and Frantisek Petr Kien, depict the true and concealed horrors of life within the camp.
Spier was born on 26 June 1900, in Zutphen, Netherlands, to a Jewish couple; the oldest of three boys. In 1924, he began working for the newspaper De Telegraaf as an artist an illustrator and married Albertine Sophie Vane Raalte in 1925; they had three children. In 1940, he was fired for being Jewish and in 1943, he was arrested and sent to Westerbork for producing a satirical cartoon of Hitler. In the same year, he and his family were sent to Terezin. Post war, they migrated to the U.S and settled in New York. Joseph Spier died in May 1978.
Место изготовленияTheresienstadt ghetto
Дата 1943 - 1943
Наименованиеdrawings
Размерность
- width: 174.00 mm
height: 120.00 mm
Язык
Кредитная линияSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Sally Glass