Foreign Correspondents Visit the Ghetto, 1943-1944

Pavel Fantl (1903–1945)

Born in Prague. Pavel Fantl studied medicine and took private art lessons. In 1935, he married and was inducted into the Czechoslovak Army as a medical officer. In 1939, he was dismissed for being a Jew, and the family moved to Kolin, Bohemia, where he was conscripted as a forced laborer. In June 1942, Fantl was transported to the Theresienstadt ghetto with his mother, Ida, his wife, Marie, and their son, Tomas. He directed the hospital for quarantined typhus patients and chaired the underground group of Jewish doctors. He used his position to relay information to the outside world, thus arousing the Germans’ suspicions. He was imprisoned in the Small Fortress, where he was interrogated and tortured. After being released to his living quarters, he smuggled out about eighty of his sketches. In October 1944, Fantl was deported to Auschwitz with his wife and by then seven-year-old son, who were murdered upon arrival; Fantl was sent to the Schwarzheide camp in Germany. In February 1945, Fantel died of typhus. 

At the bottom of the drawing the artist writes:

"We are concerned that the Ghetto should not get overcrowded: therefore, we see to it that there is adequate food and living quarters, and an appropriate lifestyle."

The artist mocks the visit that resulted in thousands of prisoners being sent to their deaths to "improve the ghetto's conditions."