Buresova, Charlotte (1904—)

Czech-Jewish artist whose work documents her imprisonment at the Terezin-Theresienstadt concentration camp. Born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in 1904; daughter of a tailor; married to a non-Jewish lawyer (divorced); children: one son.

Although Charlotte Buresova was born into modest circumstances in 1904 Prague, her parents did their utmost to foster her obvious artistic talents. By the age of six, she was drawing sketches of high quality, and her skills improved quickly as she excelled as well at her piano and French lessons. She married young, to a non-Jewish lawyer. By the 1930s, Buresova had become a leading artist in Prague and was part of that vibrant city's intellectual elite. When Nazi Germany occupied the Czech Republic in March 1939, Buresova divorced her husband with the intent of improving her son's chances of not being persecuted as a half-Jew under the new anti-Semitic racial legislation of the "Protectorate of Bohemia-Moravia," as the new occupation regime styled itself.

In 1942, the Jewish Buresova was deported to the Terezin-Theresienstadt concentration camp, 40 miles north of Prague. Established in late November 1941, this facility was a ghetto, a concentration camp, and a way station for Jews from Western and Central Europe en route to the extermination camp of Auschwitz. Although mostly populated by Czech Jews, Theresienstadt also incarcerated Jews from Germany, Austria, Denmark, and the Netherlands. This camp served as a propaganda facade designed to convince the outside world that Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe were living normal lives and even flourishing under the restrictions of the newly imposed racial laws of the Third Reich. In reality, living conditions at Theresienstadt were appalling, with heavy loss of life due to overcrowding and malnutrition.

Despite the terrible conditions, Buresova made heroic efforts to continue her work as an artist. Along with the many other artists imprisoned at Theresienstadt, she found ways to procure the materials necessary for her work. Not only paper and pencils, but even oils were found so that she was able to produce a significant number of sketches and paintings depicting the life around her. Hidden during the war, her work survived as a testimony of suffering and endurance. The Nazi administrators of Theresienstadt exploited the talents of the Jewish artists in the camp in a workshop called the Lautscher Werkstätte. Called the Lautschana by the artists forced to work in it, this facility produced a variety of artifacts such as toys, lamps, dolls, artificial flowers and other handicrafts, including leather goods. The Nazi staff sold these products outside the camp and pocketed the funds. The attractive, cheerful nature of these items, some of which survived the war and are now preserved in the Terezin Memorial Museum, stands in sharp contrast to the fate of their creators.

Despite the suffering that surrounded her, Charlotte Buresova refused to submit to despair. As in her 1942 oil painting "Deportation," the prisoners on their way to a terrible fate radiate a nobility and strength that have continued to move viewers. Buresova survived Theresienstadt and returned to her beloved Prague in 1945. With virtually all of the city's prewar Jewish population murdered by the Nazis, she entered a transformed world of ghosts and painful memories, but she resumed her career, gaining new admirers for her powerful, truthful art.

In her 70s, Buresova gradually lost her eyesight but was able to see again after several operations. The terrible events of the 1940s continued to cast their shadow on her life and work into her old age, though she did not always dwell on her wartime experiences. Writing to a scholar, she noted, "Many people like to forget what happened. But I, though I was not damaged, cannot forget. It was terrible but it gave me much confidence and was a very hard school for my present life."

sources:

Costanza, Mary S. The Living Witness: Art in the Concentration Camps and Ghettos. NY: The Free Press, 1982.

Feig, Konnilyn G. Hitler's Death Camps: The Sanity of Madness. London: Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1981.

Novitch, Miriam, Lucy Dawidowicz, and Tom L. Freudenheim. Spiritual Resistance: Art from Concentration Camps 1940–1945. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1981.

Petrasova, Marketa. "Art in the Concentration Camp of Terezin," in Judaica Bohemiae. Vol 21, no. 1, 1985, pp. 50–61.

Starke, Käthe. Der Führer schenkt den Juden eine Stadt: Bilder-Impressionen-Reportagen-Dokumente. Berlin: Haude & Spenersche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1975.

Yad Vashem Archives, Jerusalem.

John Haag , Associate Professor, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia