Helga Hošková-Weissová is one of the few children who survived the stay in the camp of Terezin. She was born in Prague in 1929 in a Jewish family. In 1941 together with her parents she was taken to the Theresienstadt camp in one of the first transports, where she spent almost three years. She took with her some drawing paper, a box with watercolors, pastels and pencils … The first drawing was created shortly after arriving at the camp – in December 1941. She drew the children making a snowman. Her father told her then “Helga, paint what you see”. And so she did. First, her works were created on good quality paper, then she drew on anything she could use. In this way, she made about 100 drawings, recording life in the ghetto. They are of particular value also because there are no photographs of this period in Terezin. Helga drawings are actually the only surviving documents – testimony of that time.
During the opening ceremony excerpts from the book “Helga Diaries” were presented together with a documentary film in which the author talks about her works. Anna Radwan from the Czech Centre in Warsaw, a co-organizer of the exhibition, participated in the opening ceremony. The exhibition was open until the the end of February.
