The exhibit features works by Erich Lichtblau-Leskly, Fred Beckmann, Moritz Müller and Leo Haas. (photo courtesy of Holocaust Museum L.A.)

Holocaust Museum Los Angeles presents “To Paint is to Live: Art & Resistance in Theresienstadt,” an exhibit running from Feb. 15 through Nov. 30 featuring the work of four artists who captured daily life in the Theresienstadt ghetto in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic).

Artists Erich Lichtblau-Leskly, Fred Beckmann, Moritz Müller and Leo Haas endured harrowing conditions in Theresienstadt, using their art to express themselves, document life around them, celebrate culture and maintain identity. Individually, they captured the struggles of daily life in the ghetto amid hardship and death.

Born in Hruschau, then part of Austria-Hungary, Lichtblau-Leskly (1911-2004) studied commercial design at the Hamburg Decoration School. He and his wife, Elsa Lichtblau, were deported and imprisoned in Theresienstadt Ghetto in 1942. Between 1942-45, he created a pictorial ghetto diary in cartoon style, but in the spring of 1945, he cut most of his artwork into pieces. Elsa hid the fragmented artwork under the floorboards of the barracks and Lichtblau-Leskly was able to retrieve it after liberation.

Born in Liptovský Mikuláš, Slovakia, Müller (1887-1944) was a gifted artist who graduated from the Prague Academy of Fine Arts and established an art school and auction house in Prague. In July 1943, Müller was deported to Theresienstadt where he was assigned to tend to elderly, sick German and Austrian Jews. Müller harnessed his artistic skills to document the faces of people dying around him and created over 500 drawings during the 14 months he was imprisoned at Theresienstadt.

Born in Opava, Czechoslovakia, Haas (1901-1983) studied at the Fine Arts Academy in Karlsruhe and later Berlin. Upon resettling in his hometown, he became a well-known painter and caricaturist and ran a local printing house. In September 1942, Haas was deported to Theresienstadt, where he and other artists were coerced into creating propaganda for the Nazis. However, Haas and his fellow artists clandestinely documented the true horrors of daily life in the camp through drawings, sketches and publications.

Beckmann (1908-1989) grew up in Michle, a Prague suburb, pursued architecture at the German Technical University in Prague and worked for the city’s leading architectural firms designing corporate and private residences. Following the Nazi invasion, he was conscripted into slave labor and in 1945 was deported to Theresienstadt. His sketches there, concealed from the watchful eyes of captors, depicted the faces of his fellow inmates and captured the physical structures of Theresienstadt. His intricate depictions of the physical buildings serve as tangible evidence of the camp’s existence.

Holocaust Museum L.A. will host an opening reception Feb. 15, at 6:30 p.m. The event will feature “Designing Memory,” a panel discussion examining the impact of architecture and the experiences of those who lived through Theresienstadt. Panelists include Paulette Nessim (daughter of Beckmann), architect Hagy Belzberg and Holocaust Museum L.A. chief curator Christie Jovanovic. The panel will be moderated by Holocaust Museum L.A.’s chief impact officer Jordanna Gessler.

Holocaust Museum L.A. is located at 100 The Grove Drive. For information, visit holocaustmuseumla.org/topaint.