us-005578-irn72627-irn914
type: RecordSet
archival history: The folio was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1989 by Dr. and Mrs. Ivan Kalina.
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…
physical characteristics and technical requirements: folio: [6] pages (text), [12] leaves of plates, numbered in left corner; 34 x 48 cm Text in English, French, Czech and Russian."5000 výtisku"--verso of t.p. Image of prisoners hauling logs,"3" ""
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
conditions of use: No restrictions on use
has beginning date: 1947-01-01
has end date: 1947-12-31
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has or had some members with language: eng
has or had some members with language: rus
has or had some members with language: fra
has or had some members with language: ces
has record set type: Item
identifier: irn914
is or was included in: us-005578-irn72627
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: Plate 3 in a folio of 12 prints by Leo Haas published in Prague in 1947. The works are based on scenes experienced or witnessed by Haas, a labor and concentration camp prisoner for nearly six years. Each print has an introductory paragraph by Milos Vacik, a poet jailed for anti-Nazi resistance activity. Haas, 38, a Czech Jew and professional artist, was arrested in 1939, deported to Nisko labor camp in Poland, and then shipped back to Ostrava in German occupied Czechoslovakia to do forced labor. In September 1942, he was sent to Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp, where he and a group of fellow artists determined to secretly document the terrible conditions of daily life in the camp. In summer 1944, they were accused by the Gestapo of smuggling their 'gruesome', that is, truthful, 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 concentration camp, where he was liberated on May 4-5 by US troops.
title: Portfolio