To Tommy, for His Third Birthday

Bedřich Fritta drew this picture book for his son Tomáš, known as Tommy, to mark his third birthday on January 22, 1944. Tommy was not yet a year old when he arrived in the Theresienstadt ghetto.

Fritta's colorful pictures portray his son's everyday life in Theresienstadt. Tommy looks at himself in a mirror or pounds the empty table with his spoon—once again, Fritta shows hunger as the prisoners' constant companion.

"A parcel - a parcel!!" (from "To Tommy, for His Third Birthday in Terezin, 22 January 1944")
Ink, pen and brush, watercolor, 22,5 x 31,5 x 3,3 cm
© Thomas Fritta-Haas, loan to the Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Jens Ziehe

---

to top

But many of the drawings depict a fantasy world, where father and son set off on imaginary journeys to foreign and exotic lands. Fritta lists the careers he would like Tommy to choose from: engineer, boxer, detective, painter.

"We're off on our travels - somewhere cold or somewhere warm?" (from "To Tommy, for His Third Birthday in Terezin, 22 January 1944")
Ink, pen and brush, watercolor, 22,5 x 31,5 x 3,3 cm
© Thomas Fritta-Haas, loan to the Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Jens Ziehe

---

to top

"Or would you rather travel like this?" (from "To Tommy, for His Third Birthday in Terezin, 22 January 1944")
Ink, pen and brush, watercolor, 22,5 x 31,5 x 3,3 cm
© Thomas Fritta-Haas, loan to the Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Jens Ziehe

---

to top

"And what would you like to be? an engineer?" (from "To Tommy, for His Third Birthday in Terezin, 22 January 1944")
Ink, pen and brush, watercolor, 22,5 x 31,5 x 3,3 cm
© Thomas Fritta-Haas, loan to the Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Jens Ziehe

---

to top

"Or a painter?" (from "To Tommy, for His Third Birthday in Terezin, 22 January 1944")
Ink, pen and brush, watercolor, 22,5 x 31,5 x 3,3 cm
© Thomas Fritta-Haas, loan to the Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Jens Ziehe

---

to top

The book was hidden in the ghetto along with Fritta's unofficial ink drawings, and was recovered after liberation. It was given to Tommy by his adoptive father Leo Haas. Today, Thomas Fritta-Haas lives with his family in the West German town of Mannheim. He says: "The only thing that remains to me, that belongs to me, that was made for me alone, is my book, a book by my father. In that book I can feel him, his tears, his hope, his fear."

"My mommy, daddy bedudu!" (from "To Tommy, for His Third Birthday in Terezin, 22 January 1944")
Ink, pen and brush, watercolor, 22,5 x 31,5 x 3,3 cm
© Thomas Fritta-Haas, loan to the Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Jens Ziehe

---

to top