us-005578-irn513390-irn513920
record resource extent: overall: Height: 14.875 inches (37.783 cm) | Width: 19.750 inches (50.165 cm) pictorial area: Height: 8.500 inches (21.59 cm) | Width: 11.375 inches (28.893 cm)
has or had holder: us-005578
is or was included in: us-005578-irn513390
has record set type: Item
has or had some members with language: deu
conditions of use: Restrictions on use
title: Leo Haas aquatint of frail people searching in the dirt
type: RecordSet
physical characteristics and technical requirements: Aquatint and drypoint on paper depicting desperate looking men, women, and children kneeling and clawing at the dirt and in barrels searching for food. Their clothes fit loosely and all the women wear head scarves. In the foreground, a woman and a man with the 3 dot armband for the blind dig in the dirt near their small bowl; the man appears to have a potato in his hand. To their left, an extremely gaunt man with large staring eyes grasps the dirt with outstretched arms. In the center, 3 adults and a child crawl along with their faces close to the dirt. Above them, on the right, a bald man leans into an empty barrel. In the left background, people surround and lean over the sides of a wagon with a sign, KARTOF-FELLAG [Potato Warehouse] and a Star of David on the top panel. The artist’s initials LH are printed in the image, bottom left. Artist signature and the dates are on the sheet. front, bottom left corner, blue ink : 10 back, center, pencil : 23
has end date: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/dates/1942-12-31
has beginning date: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/dates/1942-01-01
identifier: irn513920
results or resulted from: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn513390-irn513920/acquisitions/1
archival history: The aquatint was acquired by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2003.
has end date: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/dates/1966-12-31
has beginning date: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/dates/1966-01-01
biographical history: Leo Haas was born on April 15, 1901, in Opava, Czechoslovakia, Austro-Hungary (now Czech Republic), formerly Troppau, an ethnic German region in Silesia. Leo was the oldest of four children in a Jewish family. He received art training while a youth. In 1919, Haas moved to Karlsruhe, Germany, to attend the Art Academy. He supported himself by working as a musician in local bars and by selling paintings. In 1922, he moved to Berlin where he studied with Emil Orlik and Wilhelm Jäckel. He absorbed the bold, dramatic styles of the Expressionist and Modernist movements flourishing in the city. He closely studied the work of graphic artists such as Goya and Toulouse-Lautrec in his 1923 travels in France. In 1925, he moved to Vienna, Austria, and established himself as a portraitist and newspaper caricaturist. In 1926, Haas returned to Opava, where he continued his career as painter and graphic artist, and set up a lithography studio. He also designed sets for a local theater troupe. Haas married Sophie Hermann in 1929. He was active in the Communist Party and several artist’s cooperatives. In the fall of 1938, Nazi Germany annexed the Sudetenland border of Czechoslovakia, which included Opava. Antisemitism surged after the takeover. Haas’s work was denounced as degenerate. After the Kristallnacht pogrom on early November, he and his wife moved to Ostrava to live with her parents. In March 1939, Germany annexed the provinces of Bohemia and Moravia. German allies took over other regions and Czechoslovakia ceased to exist. There were widespread arrests of Jews, Communists, and prominent community members. In June, Jews were barred from most economic activity and property was confiscated. That September, Germany invaded Poland, the start of the Second World War. Haas was arrested for being a Communist and sent to Nisko labor camp near Lublin in German occupied Poland, where he drove supply wagons. He made portraits of SS camp personnel, in exchange for extra food and art suppl…
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
scope and content: Aquatint created by Leo Haas in 1966 based upon sketches made in 1942 based on scenes he witnessed while an inmate of Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp. It depicts the desperate search for food by emaciated inmates of Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp. Haas was an inmate of Terezin from September 1942-October 1944. Haas, 38, a Czech Jew and a professional artist, was arrested in 1939 in Ostrava in German occupied Czechoslovakia for begin a member of the Communist Party. He was deported to Nisko labor camp in Poland, then shipped back to Ostrava to do forced labor. In September 1942, he was sent to Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp, where he became part of a tight knit group of artists determined to secretly document the conditions of daily life in the camp. In summer of 1944, they were accused by the Gestapo of smuggling their gruesome work out of the camp. Haas was arrested and tortured. In October, he was deported to Auschwitz, and a month later, to Sachsenhausen. In February 1945, he was transported to Mauthausen and then Ebensee. He was liberated there on May 4-5 by American troops.
has or had identifier: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn513390-irn513920/alternateIDs/1