30/07/2026
She taught the children of Terezín how to express their fears, memories and hopes through drawing. Friedl Dicker-Brandeis was born exactly 128 years ago, on 30 July 1898.
She was one of the leading artists of her generation. She studied under Johannes Itten at the renowned Bauhaus school, designed interiors, textiles and books, and devoted herself to modern art.
In 1934, she fled Vienna for Czechoslovakia, where she worked as a textile designer. After the occupation in 1938, she and her husband were forced to move several times. In 1942, she was deported to Terezín as a Jew.
There, she decided to do what she knew best. Teach.
She did not see drawing as preparation for future painters. She believed it helped children capture what they were experiencing. In her teaching, she also used methods she had learned in Johannes Itten’s courses, intended to help restore and strengthen a child’s psychological wellbeing.
The drawings made by the children of Terezín are now an invaluable testimony to their lives. Alongside scenes from the camp, they depict homes, gardens, families, animals and dreams of the future.
In the autumn of 1944, Friedl Dicker-Brandeis was deported to Auschwitz, where she was murdered shortly after her arrival. Throughout her time in Terezín, she collected and sorted the children’s drawings. Before her departure, she managed to hide a suitcase containing hundreds of them in the attic of her friends’ home.
Today, this extraordinary collection is one of the most valuable records of children’s lives during the Holocaust. It does not only recall tragedy. It also reminds us of the power of imagination, education and humanity, even in the darkest moments.
You can see the drawings on the second floor of the Pinkas Synagogue, a memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, as well as in our online collections. You will find the links in the first comment.
