WOMEN ARTISTS IN THE GHETTOS AND CAMPS

Curriculum Developed by:
Hannah Edelman, Columbia High School
Maplewood,NJ bnanahana@aol.com
Ruth Ross, Chatham High School
Chatham, NJ evieross@comcast.net

Grade Level: 11 – 12
Subject Areas: Social Studies, English, Art History, Art

Gela Seksztajn (1907-1942)

Many writers have said that no words in any language can describe the terrible chapter in the history of humankind we call the Holocaust. This project will examine the attempts of female artists, working under abject, dehumanizing conditions in the ghettos and concentration camps, to express themselves through visual art.
While women created art in these places for a variety of reasons, the main effect was to preserve their personal identities. Ironically, the dehumanizing conditions led to quite the opposite effect. Some artistic works were salvaged to become part of the twentieth century canon, supplementing the written documents and testimonies “to make the incredible credible.” (1)

This one-week unit, suitable for upper level high school students in English, Social Studies, and Art classes, will examine the reasons women artists created art in the camps and ghettos: to document daily life for Jews under the Nazis, to maintain personal dignity, to escape from reality, to barter, and to resist. Students will use the Internet and the library to conduct research into the subjects, techniques, and purposes of art produced by specific female artists during the Holocaust. Working as partners, the students will put together a traveling exhibit of artwork illustrative of at least four of the categories mentioned above and will create their own brochure, catalogue, and press release for the exhibit.

Gela Seksztajn (1907-1942)

Gela Seksztajn, a prominent artist of the Expressionist School before the war, lived and painted in the Warsaw ghetto. In her will, which was preserved along with her watercolors in the underground archives of the Warsaw ghetto, she wrote, "...I am now standing at the boundary between life and death. I already know for certain that I must die and that is why I want to bid farewell to my friends and to my work. Farewell, comrades and friends. Jews! Do everything that such a tragedy will never be repeated!" She was killed in Treblinka in August of 1942. (2)

From the website A Teacher’s Guide to the Holocaust, “Artworks by Ghetto Artists” reprinted by permission of Florida Center for Instructional Technology, College of Education, University of South Florida.

[1] Costanza, MaryS. The Living Witness: Art in theConcentration Camps and Ghettos. New York, 1982.

[2] http://fcit.usf.edu/HOLOCAUST/resource/gallery/ghetart.htm