Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies
chgs@umn.edu
612-624-0256

Eli Leskley's Ghetto Diary

Born in 1911, Leskley painted 70 satiric watercolors while he was interned in Terezin, the show camp and ghetto established by the Nazis in Czechoslovakia. He hid them, retrieved them after the war and recreated each one. The paintings are available in sets of 15 or the complete collection of 40. Many of the originals were damaged. Part of those paintings were saved and mounted. Immediately after the war, Leskley repainted all the images to provide a satiric and poignant view of the camp at Theresienstadt.

Site created with permission of the Los Angeles Holocaust Museum which owns the works and has them available for travel.

The Jewish Federations Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust
6435 Wilshire Blvd. Suite 303,
Los Angeles, CA 90048
(323) 651-3704

For more information about the museum please visit their official website.

Please call 323-761-8170 for rental information.

All of the following images relate to life in Theresienstadt for Jewish inmates. They reflect the high and low, the horror as well as the humor, exploitation by the Germans as well as collaborators inside the camp, disease, hunger, cold, Zionist dreams, warnings about the future of the Diaspora and other issues. All of this was in the camp labeled in the Wannsee Protocol as the "Old Age Home for the Jews," and later the model camp used for Red Cross visits and the making of the film, "The Town Hitler Made for the Jews," which was never released. Parts of the film exist in the Brandeis Historical Film Archive in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Artworks

Beit Halutz - Home in Ghetto of Zionists	Beit Halutz - Home in Ghetto of Zionists (original)	Too Many Inmates, Not Enough Water
3 Kings of the Ghetto - Cooks & Bakers	3 Kings of the Ghetto - Cooks & Bakers	Honeymoon Cottage
Freizeitgestaltung 1943	Women's Barracks	Women's Barracks (original)
Hambo, The Danish Singer	Hambo, the singer from Denmark who sang a song with the refrain, "I am dying, I am dying."	Dutch Jews Arrive From Westerbork
Stealing from the Poor	Stealing & Schleussing 1943	Stealing & Schleussing (original) 8"x12"
Do Not Build in The Diaspora!	Do Not Build in The Diaspora! (original)	Permit Stamp
Head Count	Head Count (fragment of original)	Lights Out
Death Rate 150 Daily	Death Rate 150 Daily (fragment)	Everyone's Dream 1943
Senior Inmates	Senior Inmates (original)	Insulting New Arrivals
A Dream, A Home for Tired Chalutzim	A Dream, A Home for Tired Chalutzim (original)	Jewish Anti-semitism in the Ghetto. 1943
On the Lookout for Cigarette Butts	On the Lookout for Cigarette Butts (fragment)	Birthday Cake Recipe
A Ghetto Disease	A Ghetto Disease (original)	Prisoner's Disease (Hunger)
The Ghetto Girl	The Ghetto Girl (original)	Eine Wollweste 1943
Encounter of Carriages	Encounter of Carriages (original)	Impatigo in the Ghetto
Trading Soup for Bread (original)	Trading Soup for Bread	Good Morning Herr Doktor!
Doctors are Hungry Too	Doctors are Hungry Too (original)	Clean Up Detail
Farewell Until the Common Grave	Beautified & Phony: Red Cross Inspection	Beautified & Phony: Red Cross Inspection (fragment)
Unsatisfactory Work	A Child's Dream	Six Companions
New Year's Eve 1942	Polenschutz - Rank is no Privilege	In Search of Privacy, the Kumbar
Competitors for Potatoes	Clandestine Chefs	Return After Disinfection