us-005578-irn520001-irn521642
archival history: The drawing was acquired by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2002.
results or resulted from: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn520001-irn521642/acquisitions/1
title: Leo Haas sketch of SS labor camp guard Wolters
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
scope and content: Ink sketch of SS officer Wolters drawn by Leo Haas, while a prisoner in Nisko forced labor camp. Leo Haas, 38, a Czech Jew and a professional artist, was arrested in 1939 in Ostrava in German occupied Czechoslovakia for being a Communist Party member. He was deported to Nisko 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 wretched 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 US troops.
date: 1939 November 11
physical characteristics and technical requirements: Line drawing in black ink on unevenly cut tracing paper of a squinty eyed man in a military uniform in three quarter right profile from the shoulders up. He wears a jacket with a collar patch of an SS Sturmscharfuhrer. His peaked visor cap has an outline of the Nazi eagle and SS skull and crossbones insignia. He has a long neck, recessed, dimpled chin, thick eyebrows, closed, lined eyes, a large nose, and a somewhat kindly expression. The name WOLTERS is hand printed in block letters below the image. front, below image, ink : 11 XI 39 / Nisko
conditions of use: No restrictions on use
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn520001-irn521642/alternateIDs/1
record resource extent: overall: Height: 11.125 inches (28.258 cm) | Width: 8.875 inches (22.543 cm)
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…
type: RecordSet
is or was included in: us-005578-irn520001
identifier: irn521642
has record set type: Item