BBC - Radio 4 - Woman's Hour -Terezin

The creation of art in a Nazi prison camp

Earlier this week there was the tragic news that a frieze painted by Jewish children in France waiting to be sent to Nazi concentration camps had been desecrated. But other artwork survives by children whose fate was sealed in the camps.

In 1941, in a remote location 60 kilometres north-west of Prague,Theresienstadt or by its Czech name, Terezin, was established as a 'model ghetto' by the Nazis. It was used as a propaganda weapon against international opinion and concerts were held there in front of the Red Cross. In reality, it was a way station en route to death: most of its prisoners were transported to Auschwitz.

Now on display at the Jewish Museum in London is a special exhibition of art, I never saw another butterfly, created by some of the children imprisoned in the camp. Angela Robson visits the museum, and speaks to Alice Herz Sommer, the concert pianist, who was sent to Theresienstadt from Prague with her 6-year-old son Raphael in June 1943.

I never saw another butterfly is at the Jewish Museum, London until 20 June

The Jewish Museum

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