Kids’ Theresienstadt sketches go on display in Lancashire

Drawings by Jewish children held in Theresienstadt concentration camp in the former Czechoslovakia during World War Two are to go on display in a Lancashire gallery.

The 40 works show a mixture of bleak and happier imagery, from Jewish families being followed by pitchfork-carrying locals, to playful scenes and even a Passover sketch.

Curators of the exhibition, at St Annes’ Island Cinema, said the images were “truly haunting” when you consider who created them and where they were produced.

Exhibition organiser Brian Devlin said families “tried to shield their children from the horror of their situation by occupying their free time with games, education and painting”.

However, there are more telling drawings, Devlin said. “One picture is an almost entirely black page but you can make out the outline of a black train,” he explained.

“Another picture shows a mother and father and their children being shepherded through fields towards Theresienstadt, surrounded by angry farmers threatening them with pitchforks. It is very thought-provoking,” he said.