Nestled in the 760s, “Printmaking and Prints,” I found this book which talked about the background of the artists of Terezin as well as showing their work. Terezin was a former fortress city which the Nazis took over to use as a “model ghetto.” Living conditions were as awful as in other Jewish ghettos under Nazi rule, but there was a façade of respectability laid over the horror so the Nazis could claim that the Jews were being treated well for the benefit of foreign observers such as the International Red Cross.
I knew a bit about Terezin from my novel research and this was a great opportunity to see the work created clandestinely by the Jewish artists who had been deported to Terezin. Like most Holocaust stories, it ends with tragedy—few of the artists survived to see the end of the war—but the work is beautiful and haunting.
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