us-005578-irn520001-irn521653
is or was included in: us-005578-irn520001
physical characterisitics and technical requirements: Color watercolor on paper depicting 8 blind, elderly men and women with white canes pointing forward, walking arm in arm along a tree lined path. They are fully dressed in muted blue, gray, and black civilian clothes, with yellow armbands with a 3 dot triangle worn to identify a blind person. Most have visible Star of David badges. Their faces are gaunt and pointed, 2 wear dark glasses, and the others have lightly shaded, blank indents where their eyes would be. The tree foliage and ground are painted in short, impressionistic brushstrokes. Signed by the artist.
history: The drawing was acquired by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2002.
has or had subject: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/vocabularies/ehri-camps/570
identifier: irn521653
has end date: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/dates/1943-12-31
scope and content: Watercolor by Leo Haas of a group of blind inmates with Judenstern walking outdoors. It is based on scenes he witnessed in 1942 while an inmate 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 being a Communist. 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 misery and suffering of daily life in the ghetto. They hid their work in the camp, and much was recovered postwar. In summer 1944, they were accused by the Gestapo of smuggling their 'gruesome' work out of the camp and were arrested and tortured. In October, Haas 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.
title: Leo Haas watercolor of blind Jewish inmates walking outdoors
results or resulted from: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn520001-irn521653/acquisitions/1
has or had holder: us-005578
has record set type: Item
conditions of use: No restrictions on use
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
has or had identifier: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn520001-irn521653/alternateIDs/1
type: RecordSet
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…
record resource extent: overall: Height: 16.000 inches (40.64 cm) | Width: 19.500 inches (49.53 cm)
has beginning date: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/dates/1943-01-01