Art from Auschwitz

Today is the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. One of the very important functions of art is to record important life events and events in history.

This post is about art produced by Auschwitz survivors and others who want to record this episode in world history. We're all used to the term "history paintings". Below I'd like to introduce you to some of the art which also survives. What follows is a mix of links to articles talking about art from Auschwitz and artwork which is archived on the website of the Museum at Auschwitz.

• Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau - Art of camp and postcamp period.

To gas
Pencil, paper, 13,5 x 19,5 cm, KL Auschwitz 1942-44.
Collections of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum

• BBC - Auschwitz anniversary: The survivor who brought the Holocaust to life. Thomas Geve survived two years in Auschwitz. Do read this it's an amazing story

Transport arriving at the unloading ramp
Pencil, crayons, paper, 13,5 x 19,5 cm, KL Auschwitz 1942-44
Collections of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum

• Haretz - Artwork by unknown prisoner opens window into Auschwitz

Dividing families

Pencil, crayons, paper, 13,5 x 19,5 cm, KL Auschwitz 1942-44. Z

Collections of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum

• CNN - a slideshow of Auschwitz's forbidden art

Pushing chairs
Black watercolours, cardboard, 13 x 20.8 cm, Paris 1945. 

Collections of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.

• The art of Jan Komski - a survivor of Auschwitz. He has produced drawings and paintings after his liberation of his memories of what it was like.

A portrait of Géza Schein
Pencil, paper, 14,5 x 10,5 cm, KL Jawischowitz 1944.
Collections of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum

• Deutsche Welle‎ - The horrors of Auschwitz in art

A portrait of Paweł Brozek

Watercolours, cardboard, Indian ink, 15 x 11,3 cm, KL Auschwitz 1944. 

Collections of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum

• Artnetnews - Museum Exposes Illegal Art of Auschwitz
• ITV - Stephen Fry leads artists remembering the Holocaust

and finally.....

• Young artist and illustrator Gideon Summerfield has been working on a new project of creating pencil portraits of Holocaust Survivors called The Legacy of Survival which he complted in time for the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camps.

'THE LEGACY OF SURVIVAL' is a new project based on a set of portraits which feature Holocaust survivors with their children or grandchildren. For many years, a number of survivors did not talk to their families about their horrific experiences. The younger generation now know a great deal about what happened but as the years go by, the survivors will not be present to share their stories and it will fall to the next generation and their children to keep the memory alive.

COPYRIGHT: All images are from the Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau. Material belonging to the Museum may be used free of charge exclusively for non-commercial and strictly educational purposes, on the condition that its source is indicated in the following form: “www.auschwitz.org”.
An additional condition to which there are absolutely no exceptions is that this material may be used only in undertakings and projects that do not impugn or violate the good name of the victims of Auschwitz Concentration Camp.