Bedřich Fritta
Drawings
from the
Theresienstadt
Ghetto
17 May to 29 September 2013and as part of the special program on the Terezín Ghetto from
28 February to 4 May 2014
- Bedřich Fritta, Facades for the International Commission, 1943/44
Ink, pen and brush, 57 x 84,5 cm
© Thomas Fritta-Haas, long-term loan to the Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Jens Ziehe
Preparing for the visit of the International Red Cross on June 23, 1944, the SS carried out a "beautification" of the ghetto that included setting up small shops. The goods on sale were items seized by the Nazis. To make the ghetto seem less overcrowded, many people were deported to Auschwitz shortly before the delegation's arrival.
Extremes
Fritta's background as a cartoonist is reflected in the style of his Theresienstadt works. This is especially true of his pen and ink drawings, with their fine, sharp lines. In these pictures, the tottering houses and exaggerated faces and gestures take on an element of caricature. Their overstated style also recalls the formal language of Expressionist artists such as George Grosz or Otto Dix.
Some of these pieces are harshly critical. Fritta attacks the privileged life of those of the ghetto's residents classified as "prominent persons," or caricatures the ambitious "beautification campaign" mounted by the SS to deceive the international public about the real conditions in the ghetto. Through exaggeration, he emphasizes the rift between the propaganda image of a supposed Jewish "model settlement" and the ghetto's cruel reality.
- Bedřich Fritta, The Life of a Privileged Detainee, 1943/44
Pen and ink, 58,3 x 74 cm
© Thomas Fritta-Haas, long-term loan to the Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Jens Ziehe
One unusual feature of the Theresienstadt ghetto was that some detainees were categorized as "VIPs" or "prominent individuals." Their privileges included better food, accommodation in special buildings together with their families, and in some cases even protection from deportation.
- Bedřich Fritta, Café, 1943
Pen and ink, 44 x 60 cm
© Thomas Fritta-Haas, long-term loan to the Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Jens Ziehe
Fritta gives a wraithlike and strangely abstracted quality to the guests in this café, set up in the ghetto in December 1942. The tables are empty apart from the entrance tickets, which had to be bought with "ghetto currency" and were valid for two hours. The café was designed to delude the Red Cross delegation, but for the prisoners it was a comfort-for a few moments, it offered them a semblance of normal life.
- Bedřich Fritta, Prayer and Theater, 1943/44
Pen and ink, 60 x 78,4 cm
© Thomas Fritta-Haas, long-term loan to the Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Jens Ziehe
As well as cultural life, there was also a reduced form of religious life in Theresienstadt. Services and wedding ceremonies were held in the prayer room in the Magdeburg Barracks. The same building housed a concert hall and the theater shown here, as well as the drawing studio where Fritta worked.
- Bedřich Fritta, Ghetto: View of the Divided Street "Lange Strasse", 1943
Pen and ink, 59 x 43,5 cm
© Thomas Fritta-Haas, long-term loan to the Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Jens Ziehe
The drawing opens up a vista of the ghetto, seen from the attic of the Hannover Barracks. In the background is the fenced-off market square. Until late 1943, components to prevent the engines of military vehicles from freezing were assembled and packed for the Wehrmacht there, under the shelter of a huge tent.
Bedřich Fritta
Drawings
from the
Theresienstadt
Ghetto
17 May to 29 September 2013and as part of the special program on the Terezín Ghetto from
28 February to 21 April 2014
to top
Facebook
Google+
@jmberlin auf Twitter
YouTube