Spirit of Anne Frank Awards - Anne Frank Center

Art and Propaganda in Nazi Occupied Holland
Art and Propaganda in Nazi Occupied holland is a new
exhibit of the Anne Frank Center, USA. The exhibition was
researched and translated by AFC and the Netherlands,
and translated by AFC Advisory Board member rolf
Wolfswinkel. Both the henry Pieck and the de Zaayer
collections were purchased and subsequently donated
to the AFC by Jack Polak. This collection sheds further
light on life under Nazi occupation in the Netherlands,
as well as in the concentration camps where so many of
its inhabitants, including Anne Frank, her mother and her
sister, perished in squalor and despair.
Sketches from Buchenwald is a series of stark lithographs
based on the concentration camp experience of the
Dutch artist henri Pieck, the less famous of the Pieck
twins. Brother Anton is well known for his vast portfolio
of paintings, etchings, woodcarvings, and engravings.
henri, whom Anton considered to be the more talented
of the pair, turned to Communism and served as an
informant for the Soviet Union. That work was unknown
to the Nazis upon their occupation of the Netherlands.
however, he was arrested for underground activities and
sent to the Buchenwald camp in Germany. he managed
to survive there from 1942 until its liberation in 1945
partly due to his artistic talents.
having secretly sketched fellow prisoners, Pieck made
23 drawings from memory after his release. Seven of
these harrowing original works are included in the
exhibit. The faces of the subjects reflect their bleak
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suffering. Yet, remarkably, they also display hope for
the freedom that many of them never would achieve,
as in the sketch entitled Behind Barbed Wire, depicting
a group of prisoners gazing out beyond the nightmare
world in which they were trapped. The drawings are
simultaneously disturbing and poignant, reflecting both
hopelessness and unyielding perseverance.
Oorlogsprentenboek (Book of War Prints – Illegally
Published) is a collection of linocuts, created during the
occupation by marie de Zaaijer, an artist about whom
very little is known. The prints, 12 of which are on
display at the Center, reflect the hardship of life in a small
country smothered by the Nazi occupation, as well as the
efforts of the resistance movement.
The complete collection of 31 prints was presented by
ms. De Zaaijer to Queen Wilhelmina in January of 1946.
Serving in exile from Great Britain during the occupation,
the Queen sought to rally her countrymen with radio
broadcasts that were presented illegally and at significant
risk. Though the Queen was said to be “filled with
admiration,” she returned all of the prints to the artist.
The prints on display are intricate in their detail; each
image features text which explains and amplifies its
meaning. In Concentration Camp, a bleak image of a
prisoner in front of a cross but behind barbed wire,
reads: Let us think about them / Who will one day ask us /
What did you do then, and what did you suffer?