(Bedřich Fritta, 1906-44). Castle.

TAUSSIG, FRANZ

1930’s

Watercolor and colored pencil on illustration board. Signed “Taussig” lower center.

Bedřich Fritta was a Czech-Jewish artist and cartoonist. Before the war, he worked as an illustrator and graphic designer in Prague under the pseudonym Fritz Taussig. In the 1930’s, Fritta devoted himself to political caricature and provided input for the celebrated satirical German weekly magazine Simplicus. Fritta was deported to Terezín on 4th December 1941 where he was one of the most signifficant artists to be incarcerated. He was forcibly appointed director of the painting section of the Technical Department in the camp, providing graphic propaganda materials for the Germans. He was eventually sent to Auschwitz, where he perished. After the war an illustrated album made by Fritta and dedicated to his son on his third birthday was found hidden in the walls at Theresienstadt. “To Tommy for his Third Birthday in Terezin” see Jewish Museum of Berlin exhibition: www.jmberlin.de/fritta/en/bilderbuch-fuer-tommy.php. See also Jewish Museum, Prague: https://www.jewishmuseum.cz/predmet-mesice/158/150/Bedrich-Fritta-1906-1944-Makeshift-Barracks-An-Evening-in-the-Barracks-Terezin-1942-44/. Yad Vashem: https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/art/fritta.asp.