Abstract

More than 150 000 Jews passed through the gates of the Theresienstadt Ghetto between 1941 and its liberation in 1945. Approximately 12,500 of them were children, only a few of whom survived. Some of these children left behind drawings and writings – fragments of memory resisting erasure. Focusing on one survivor’s autobiography and her haunting description of her “four closest companions” – Hunger, Cold, Fear, and Death – this study investigates how children in Theresienstadt represented their lived experiences through pictorial and narrative creative expressions. At the heart of this study is a collection of over 4,500 children’s drawings produced in the ghetto under the guidance of an art teacher in the children’s homes.
By exploring the presence and significance of these four companions, supplemented with excerpts from children’s diaries and memoirs of survivors, this study reveals how these themes were persistent emotional realities that shaped children’s understanding and portrayal of their world. This research also considers visual contrasts between pre-ghetto and ghetto life, such as the depiction of smoke rising from chimneys, and what the absence of such imagery might disclose about memory, loss, and rupture. Through the analysis of visual culture alongside historical and literary sources, children’s creative expressions emerge as silent testimonies of resilience, coping, and meaning making amid suffering. This research thus preserves the voices of children within Holocaust historiography and contributes to broader dialogues in Holocaust studies, memory studies, and the history of childhood.