Not long after the end of World War II, two suitcases from Terezn, the so-called model ghetto designed by the Nazi propaganda machine to showcase creative endeavors, were delivered to members of what remained of the Jewish community of Prague. The contents of the suitcases included children's drawings, paintings, and collages made at Terezn thanks to the efforts of a teacher interned there. Rediscovered in the 1950s, the pictures, by then housed at the Jewish Museum in Prague, were exhibited, and over time some were published. Friedl Dicker-Brandeis was the remarkable woman who taught art to many of Terezn's children before she was killed at Auschwitz. While she has been valorized for her heroic efforts as a teacher, her approach to teaching art has remained unexamined.
This book and the accompanying exhibition, curated by Linney Wix at the University of New Mexico Art Museum, offer a closer look at the methods and philosophy of Dicker-Brandeis's teaching, the history behind her approach, and its possible psychological effects on the children she taught. The book includes biographical and art historical information on Dicker-Brandeis, and sheds light on her roles as an artist, teacher, and heroine behind Nazi lines in the Second World War.
Published in cooperation with the University of New Mexico Art Museum.