Chapter 8 Even in Auschwitz, painting is still beautiful

——The story of the Jewish female painter Fried By chance, I heard the story of Hannah, a Jewish girl who was murdered by the Nazis in Auschwitz.The most recent detail of this history was unearthed by a Japanese woman.So, when I received a call from a friend in Tokyo, I couldn't help telling this story on the phone.Speaking of Hannah and other Jewish children, they were once imprisoned in Theresienstadt, a famous concentrated residential area in the Czech Republic.There, a female artist who was also a prisoner took the risk to teach children to paint, so Hannah left four paintings.Unexpectedly, my friend got excited on the other end of the phone and said, I know that painter, I have seen an exhibition on her theme in Tokyo, and she came from the Bauhaus.

After checking their respective information, I am sure that we are talking about the same person.I also found out that what my friend saw in Tokyo was a mobile international exhibition, and it is still on tour around the world.Sixty years after her death, the first-class artistic talent of the female painter and her silent work and life have aroused people's awareness and reflection all over the world. Her name is: Friedl Dick-Blondes (Friedl Dicker-Brandeis). one The beginning of her life was in Vienna, Austria, a very ordinary even in Auschwitz, the painting is still beautiful Jewish family.She was born on July 30, 1898.The name she later adopted, Freed, was originally just a nickname given to her by her mother, who died when she was four.She was brought up by her father, who worked hard all his life as an assistant in a stationery store.The image he sees most often, and which he likes to see, is that of his little daughter, Freed, completely lost in the world he has built with color and paper.She has been obsessed with drawing since she was a child.

As a child of an ordinary family, she did not come into this world with a silver spoon in her mouth.But at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries when she grew up, her hometown was in a golden age.Vienna at that time was the cultural center of Europe.There, an ordinary child like Freed can enjoy visual pleasure, mental health and a colorful life to the fullest.Concerts and poetry readings are often held in parks and cafes. She doesn't need to buy a ticket, she can linger in the Museum of Art History all day long, staring at masterpieces.She can also sit in the bookstore for a long time, from those expensive art books, copy her favorite master's works in a small book, without interference.Before the First World War, Vienna's peaceful, elegant and creative cultural atmosphere left a deep impression on Friede's life.She has seen firsthand how colorful, varied and thriving a garden can be in normal ambient climates.I am a testament to myself—Fried is a bud in this garden.

When the First World War began, Fried was sixteen.Fortunately, she was able to avoid the flames of war, went to school according to the normal track, and experienced the first formal art training.She chose photography as her major.At that time, it was very rare for a girl to choose this major.For two years, she studied under the master photographer Johannes Beckmann, training her skills and professional artistic vision.Fried saw that art is expressing people's feelings and seems to be describing people's state, but she has already understood that people and life are far more complicated existences.Although photography is the most "realistic" category of art, the scenes that have been refined, refined and frozen, even the ordinary moment, still carry the meaning of strengthening and condensing.She writes, "Photography captures a moment...but as a human being, his relationship with his surroundings, his relationship with himself cannot be expressed in a short moment."

The habit of inclination towards philosophical thinking made Fried a bit precocious, and it also prevented her artistic temperament from fermenting into a general passion at the beginning.Her habit of thinking also comes from her neutrality and de facto early independence.At the age of sixteen, Freed didn't get along well with his stepmother, so he began to live alone, studying at school and working part-time. The art education nearly a hundred years ago has already started avant-garde reform and in-depth exploration.And Fried was born at the right time, from being a student to becoming a teacher, he experienced and participated in the whole process.Some historians and scholars today regard literature and art as superficial glitz.In fact, as long as it is everyone, under the superficial brilliance he presents, there must be a bottomless ideological foundation.What historians are exploring is mostly the broad context of social trends; what literature and art are dissecting in detail is the heart that people deliberately hide involuntarily.To a certain extent, the latter is an indispensable support for understanding the former; the former is the basic background that the latter cannot abandon.

In 1915, the seventeen-year-old Fried became a student of FranzC~iz~ek. The art education reform that C~iz~ek focuses on is to develop unpolished art.He believes that for any first-level student, even a child, the basis for his painting should not only be his study, but also follow his own inner pulse.In harmony with Freud's theory, he explores the inner world of the students themselves without realizing it.In C~iz~ek's view, painting is just a form of inner expression.In class, he often declared to Friede and her classmates, "Today, let me see your souls!" C～iz～ek’s art teaching reform had a great influence on Fried.Of course, Friede's own independent, rebellious, free and undisciplined personality, creative and inquisitive thinking habits were also very suitable for accepting the emerging explorations in the field of art philosophy at that time. Her friend recalled that Fried cut He has short hair, wears the same gray coat every day, and often skips classes at night to go to theaters or concert halls to watch performances.

The war is going on, and the current situation is also changing. Vienna, the former paradise, has begun to be crowded with war refugees pouring in like a tide.Basic foodstuffs began to run short.It is hard to imagine that, in these difficult times, the Swiss painter Johannes Itten Itten, opened his own art school in Vienna.Moreover, he himself has formed a new whirlwind in the art world.As Friede transferred to Yiten's school, she also took a step further, from the "unpolished self-knowledge" of C~iz~ek, into a world with mysterious laws.There, life and art are inextricably intertwined.The "inner pulse" that she is familiar with is just the first step towards understanding the world.

In Itten, Fried learned that art is just the connection between words, sounds, forms, colors and movements, and art makes the earth harmonious in its unique way.She found that our perception of reality is difficult to describe simply.The basic skeleton forms the form, and the spirit is imprisoned in the form.The artist must unpack, dismantle and study these forms, remove unnecessary parts, and reassemble.And the spirit is released in artistic reconstruction.Fried also found herself so well suited to an atmosphere in which her natural impulses could be so perfectly expressed in her artistic circle of friends and in her art.

That's a thread that runs parallel to the war.European politicians are dragging the young and middle-aged people of each country in the patriotic name of "the motherland needs you" for the great benefit, and beat you to death.This war almost sacrificed an entire generation of young people in Europe.In Vienna, where bread and flour are in short supply, the inheritance of music and art continues in any possible gaps, and the seemingly meaningless spiritual exploration and exploration are persisting.Such a situation, not only to the young Freed, but also to the world, is just a phenomenon and a fact, not a question worth pondering.

two One of the unexpected gains from studying with Itten was that the 21-year-old Fried was brought into the famous Bauhaus. There is probably no student of architecture or arts and crafts who does not know the Bauhaus.Bauhaus is just a school of arts and crafts, which was founded in Weimar, Germany by Walter Gropius, one of the four masters who pioneered modern architecture.It was 1919, and the war had just ended. The goal of the Bauhaus, according to Grupius, was "a message to young architects".Not long after the school opened, Iten received an invitation from Grubius to join him with a few of his most proud students.He was still a teacher, and the students he took with him became students of the Bauhaus, and among them was Fried.

Specifically, Bauhaus is to break down the barriers between fine arts and crafts, but also to combine architecture and crafts.It not only requires students to have abstract thinking and rich artistic imagination, but also emphasizes that students have the ability to realize, and even the ability to make various products by hand.It has cultivated a large number of designers with a modern artistic vision, and has become the backbone of the subsequent modern architecture, handicraft design and industrial design. A few years later, Grupius wrote of Fried, "From June 1919 to September 1923, Mademoiselle Dick studied at the Bauhaus, and she , outstanding performance. Her work is always eye-catching. The multifaceted nature of her talent, combined with incredible energy, makes her one of the best students. Still in her first year, she is already serving as Teacher, mentoring new students. As the founder and former director of the Bauhaus, I have followed Miss Dick's success with great interest." Friede was at home at the Bauhaus.In Weimar, Bauhaus teachers and students lived together in small communities like art villages.This is a very classic way of life for artists.Fried loves music and theater.Bauhaus has a whole set of art festival activities.Freed was actively involved in designing posters and performances.But she still puts her main energy into learning and creation.She loves the new classes here, which support her inner evolution and the connection between practice and art.She made the most of the school and even learned to use a printing press, metalworking machinery, a fast weaving machine that she could control, and more.The book binding machine she made with her classmate Anne, as a school achievement, is also recorded in today's "Bauhaus History". Bauhaus is so refreshing.For many students, the Bauhaus style would again become a burden.Even Yi Teng's teaching will become an insurmountable influence.Later people commented that Friede was probably very rare, a "Bauhauser" who was able to digest the Bauhaus and really "go out" from the Bauhaus to re-understand himself and establish his own artistic personality. During this period of time, the young Freed also completed the transformation from a girl to a woman in a painful way. The beginning of the story was before going to the Bauhaus.Freed, a talented and beautiful girl who just turned twenty, has several suitors.Some songs are still found today, written especially for her by young musicians who fell in love with Freed, one of which is entitled "Half of My Life".However, none of them got a response.Friede's first love was very innocent.She just fell in love with a college student studying architecture.That was Flanz Singer, who went to the Bauhaus with her a year later. They spent two years studying happily at the Bauhaus together and participated in drama activities after school.At that time in Weimar, some local artists also participated in various activities of Bauhaus. They formed a group called "Friends of Bauhaus". In 1921, Fried and Singer organized another opera together, and Fried designed a poster for the performance.A female singer named Amy sang in the opera, and she changed Fried's life. One night of passionate performance, Fried's lover Franz fell in love with the female singer.They got married not long after.Fried wrote to longtime friend Anne: "The key is to calm yourself down - and then everything will be fine. I am overwhelmed by endless, absolute loneliness. May God help me through this life. " Since then, in people's impressions, Freed has not changed much, and she is still the funny, enthusiastic girl who keeps coming up with new ideas.Beneath this exterior, however, lurks another Freed: she becomes hypersensitive, melancholic, and lonely.Her later works at the Bauhaus show a marked change in style.A group of her works "Darkness" at that time showed her own nightmare.Seen only by her closest friends, she wrote: "I often feel like a swimmer propelled by a terrible flood...for a split second, I lift my head out of the water...I want to be against another swimmer Luckily, I don’t have any plans for myself, not even a minute later.” However, the sudden change in her life was not the end of the chaos. After married Franz and his wife had a child "Bibi", he returned to Friede and became her lover.For Freed, she only had such a simple first love that started at the age of twenty, and it was a never-ending relationship.The one who came back now was the same person she loved deeply, but he was already someone else's husband.She was powerless to push Franz away, powerless to sort herself out, let alone get out of this predicament. In 1923, they had left the Bauhaus to start their own business.After many twists and turns.They returned to Austria from Germany and established the "Singer-Dick Studio" in Vienna.Franz Singer was a young architect of excellent quality, and the two men were equal in artistic talent.When they were students, they were used to cooperating tacitly. Now, as mature designers, they cooperate more smoothly, and a large number of excellent designs come out of this studio continuously.They mixed the Bauhaus style with the Viennese style, from the design of architecture to furniture and handicraft products, and the business of the studio was very prosperous. That’s what Grubius said, as he “watched” her success with “great interest.”Their business cooperation seems to be a perfect match, but the complicated personal relationship between the two makes Fried more and more confused.Consequently, their relationship is often strained.Fried's friends remember how much she loved children.While Bauhaus students set up booths at the festival selling handicrafts, Friede sold dolls she made herself, and her booth was perpetually full of kids.She had always longed to have a child of her own, and she had several pregnancies, all of which ended up being aborted at Franz's will. This situation has been maintained for almost seven or eight years.And Freed finally conceived the ability to break out of his cocoon after years of struggle.A simple love that started at the age of twenty finally broke under the twist. She left voluntarily and rented her own studio in Vienna's 19th district, away from Franz and the painful memories of the past. It was during this time-in 1931, the thirty-three-year-old Fried was invited by the Vienna city government to get a job teaching art courses to kindergarten teachers.For Fried, the success of creation is not all she seeks for an artistic career, it is an opportunity that she has really longed for in her heart for many years.Freed is a painter, and she is a painter in thinking.For her, exploring the philosophy of how art happens and grows is an inseparable part of her artistic practice.Perhaps, this is the trace left by the masters in her early education. She threw herself into her new job, furthering the art education she had learned from Iton. Itten is a talented art educator, but he is not a first-class painter himself, and Fried can just make up for this shortcoming.Her teaching process is all expressed with the most outstanding and vivid demonstrations and works.This job is tailor-made for her ideals—her teaching target is preschool teachers. She is not teaching students to draw, but teaching art teachers, so that they can understand how to enlighten children with art.It was a challenge she had been waiting for.Teaching is forcing her to further think about the relationship between psychology, philosophy and art.She is reluctant to leave in her spiritual home.Her students recall that no one else opened their understanding of art so much.What she teaches students is to experience how art sprouts, like a bamboo, first sprouting the tip of the shoot, then it grows, grows, and finally, slowly unfolds its first pure green leaf. three However, such a peaceful and pleasant teaching career did not last long. In Austria in the early 1930s, the right wing was already strong. In 1933, Hitler took power in Germany.The Nazis he led, the so-called National Socialist Party, could not tolerate freedom of thought and expression, even in the field of art.Therefore, as soon as Hitler came to power, the Bauhaus was immediately closed. In January 1934, Austria's right wing rose up and rioted in Vienna.Although the "Singer-Dick Studio" no longer exists, a large number of works they designed were destroyed, and the buildings they designed were demolished, including the Vienna Tennis Club built in 1928, and the newly built Hilliet ( Countess Heriot's guest house. Freed by nature could not tolerate the stifling of artistic freedom, nor could he tolerate the Nazis' hostility towards Jews.Alone at the age of thirty-six, when the Nazis rose in Austria, she tried to join the anti-fascist ranks, so she went to the left and joined the Austrian Communist Party.During this period, she designed some anti-fascist posters.These posters also have a clear Bauhaus style and strong words.In an image of Hitler, Nazi soldiers and chaos, with a crying baby in the center, there is this verse: Even in Auschwitz, painting is still beautiful This is the world you see, boy This world is where you were born ... if you don't like this world then you have to change it In Fried's circle of friends, daily struggles with such choices: To stay there and fight fascism, or to flee Austria?For Freed at the time, she thought fleeing was shameful.Freed helps friends hide some personal papers in the studio.But one day, her studio was raided and some fake passports were found.She was immediately arrested.She remained silent during the interrogation under blindingly bright lights.In the end, the court did not convict her and she was released immediately.Once out of prison, she left Vienna for Prague. This experience and her feelings were recorded in her later painting "Interrogation". Fried's departure was a typical political escape.But after coming to Prague, deep down in her heart, she seemed to have drawn a pause on top of the short-lived excitement of the previous period. Stimulated by the rampant Austrian fascism, she who loves freedom instinctively fights, but the price is that she deviates from her original psychological track.The culmination of this excitement was her experience in prison. Now, she came to Czechoslovakia in 1934, a free country where Jews had seats in Congress, and opened its arms to political refugees from all over the world. Freed suddenly reunited with freedom in Prague, reunited with the tranquility she was familiar with, the pure impulse of artistic creation, the exploration of deep artistic philosophy and the research on the relationship between art education and spiritual shaping and release, all of which constituted her world , which is also a part of human exploration instinct.She seemed to feel that if she left this world, her very existence would be in doubt.Although she knows that the crisis has not disappeared, she still participates in some discussions, and still does some jobs that are even very dangerous to the best of her ability.However, her excitement is no longer there.Thirty-six-year-old Freed tried to recognize himself in doubt. Walking into Prague, Friede's artistic style changed suddenly. She left the new trend, left the structuralism of Bauhaus, left all the high-profile forms, and returned to the simple style of painting.With total concentration she began a profusion of paintings: landscapes, figures, still lifes, often with a decorative touch.She seems to use the pure beauty in these paintings to redeem and find her original self.What the Nazis were destroying was what Fried felt was the most essential thing in life.Adhering to the characteristics and pursuits that belong to the original life of her own is the core part of her personal struggle.For her, the Nazis had succeeded if they had given up all that. Along with painting, she is passionately involved in the art education of refugee children.She could no longer give up the art teaching experiment she started in Vienna.That's her specialty.One of her former students, also a preschool teacher, joined her soon after.Later, Fried held exhibitions of the children's work.Her education is obviously successful, and she let people see that it is not only some beautiful pictures, but also presents the hearts of children. Her friend Hilde recalled that Fried and the children got along so well. Hilde liked best to hear what Fried told about the children.Once, a child asked Fried, what is a church?Fried replied that the church is the home of God.The child thought for a while and said, you are wrong, God's home is in heaven, and the church is his studio.Another time, a kid said to Freed, can I talk to you?Freed said yes.Just ask her to sit down across from you.After a while she asked, what do you want to talk about?The child said, can I just sit like this?The child actually wanted to be close to her, to be with her.Her spiritual home is squeezed into a group of children who are creating and building it together. At the same time, she allowed herself to return to the original track of architectural and craft design. She got in touch with friends from the Viennese design scene and started a new collaboration, not only designing textiles, but also participating in the architectural design of the apartment renovation.She also got in touch with her father, who lives in Vienna, and learned that her aunt lived in Prague with her youngest son, Pavel Brandeis.At this time, Freed, perhaps more than ever, needs the comfort of family affection.Overjoyed, she found their address through the Jewish Center in Prague.This chance meeting brought a new phase to her life.She and Pavel are in love. On April 29, 1936, at the age of thirty-eight, Freed had a home of his own.After many years of lonely trekking, now, at the end of every day's journey, there is finally a warm light specially lit for myself, and behind the dim curtains, there is a pure feeling and expectation.The fiery passion that Fried had burned for love in his youth suddenly came back.However, she has been unable to get the child she has long dreamed of.She had been pregnant once during her marriage, but had a miscarriage.She lost her last chance to be a mother. Undoubtedly, she is happy, but it happens to be in a cruel age.Everyone who loves freedom like Freed still has constant, similar inner struggles.Should one drop everything and engage in direct combat, and should one continue to have the right to seek one's own personal happiness?Can you still stick to yourself?Can I still follow my instinct and continue to build a world of my own?These problems have appeared since she first set foot on the land of Prague. She even discussed it with a friend who is a psychologist.A friend told her that she was always looking for her own happiness, and that was not a sin. In the end, she can only follow her own nature and intuition.When the Spanish Civil War broke out, all her friends were preparing to go to fight, and she thought about going, but in the end she decided to stay, accompany her husband, and fulfill her responsibilities as a wife. It is not only Fried who instinctively understands the significance of free artistic thinking to human progress.In July 1937, two art exhibitions opened in Munich.One of the main galleries of the most well-known Munich Art Museum with the exhibition titled "Great Exhibition of German Art".Another exhibition is held in the warehouse, and the theme is "Degenerate Art Exhibition".Through the specific exhibition of such "black paintings", Hitler tried to let the public know what kind of artistic thinking would no longer be tolerated by the society he established.On the opening day of the "Black Painting Exhibition", Hitler delivered a speech, "The art field has been mixed with laymen. Today they are modern, and tomorrow they will all be forgotten...".However, many years later, the painters in the first exhibition hall have been forgotten, and the authors of the "Black Painting Exhibition", including Otto Dix, Ernst Ludwig, Oscar Shu Oskar Schlemmer, George Grosz, Ernst Barlach and other German Impressionist painters and some German Jewish painters, etc., each of them, is remembered today and reacquaintance. In March 1938, Germany occupied Austria.Italy, Hungary and Romania all sided with the Nazis. In September 1938, Germany signed the "Munich Agreement" with Britain, France, and Italy, which allowed Hitler to control part of the territory of Czechoslovakia.Within six months, most of Czechoslovakia was under Nazi control.Czechoslovakia is no longer a safe country.The Nazis began openly persecuting Jews in Europe. On November 9, 1938, the German Nazis attacked Jews extensively in one night. Countless shops owned by Jews were destroyed and glass windows were smashed. This is the famous Crystal Night in history.News also came from Vienna that almost all the works designed by Friedh, no matter how big or small, were smashed.All of Freed's friends were preparing for further escape, and there was an atmosphere of panic all around.Whether she has fled or is preparing to flee, friends are concerned about Fried, who is both a Jew and a well-known artist, and tell her that she must leave as soon as possible. It was found, however, that all this bad news had little effect on Freed.She is still busy with her painting and children's art education.Singer had already fled to London, and she sent a letter hoping that she would go to London too; her old friend Anne and her husband sent her a certificate of emigration to Palestine; and she held a passport that she could leave at any time.There was only one reason why she did not go: it was too late for her husband Pavel to flee, and it was impossible for him to obtain a passport.Just like when she didn't go to Spain to fight, now she doesn't leave the danger that is approaching every step of the way, just following the natural and inevitable choice, she wants to stay with her beloved husband.What she sticks to is her own world.She didn't have a clear and lofty goal, but just obeyed her instinctive logic.And the formation of this logic is the result of her tortuous journey over the years. Art itself is an endless exploration.As an artist, Freed is often looking for a piece of work, or a freeze frame with the loudest design, but she knew from the beginning that life is far more complicated, and it is difficult for her to make a high profile.How to view her own position in this world, how to face others and herself is the dilemma that Friede can never break free from. She has been questioning herself all her life. In that year, March 1938, she wrote: "My artistic career has saved me from death a thousand times. By diligently practicing painting, I have atoned for my sins of unknown origin." This feeling was the dominant tone of Fried's life. Four On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland and World War II broke out. Countries fell to the German invasion - Denmark, Norway, France, Belgium, Holland.The persecution of the Jews began to spread throughout Europe with the footsteps of the Nazi aggression. From 1938 to 1942, Friedh and her husband Pavel left Prague and began to hide in the countryside.They came to Hronov, the town where Pavel was born.It's a beautiful place.Freed wrote, "It is so peaceful here that even in the last moments of my life, I firmly believe that there are some things that evil can never overcome." She made every effort to continue her original life trajectory.They both initially worked in textile companies there, and Fried returned to designing textiles.In letters to friends, she begins discussions on art history and philosophy of art.She also kept drawing.In the letter, she described her changes in painting: "I don't want to make allegorical expressions anymore, I just want to describe the original appearance of the world. It is neither fashionable nor outdated." Friends who have visited her all Remember, she can make any little thing happy. The art world is still watching Freed. In 1940, Paul Wengraf, an art intermediary living in London, offered to exhibit Freed's work and brought her to London.In August of that year, an exhibition of Freed's paintings opened at the Round Arch Gallery in London, showing her landscapes, still lifes and flowers, without Freed herself being present. The situation worsened as the German army gradually occupied Czechoslovakia, and the laws against Jews became stricter. In 1939, Fried and Pavel lost their jobs at the Textile Design Institute. In 1940 they moved further to a village near Ronov.There, Friede, who was accustomed to hands-on production at the Bauhaus, began to encourage Pavel to learn a carpentry craft to cope with the unknown future. They were forced to move several more times in 1941 and 1942.Jews are no longer allowed to keep dogs, they must wear a yellow hexagonal star on the street, they are not allowed to take trams, they must buy things at a specific time, and they must use shopping coupons.Their survival depends not only on courage and hope, but also on the help of some non-Jewish residents in the area. In 1942, Hitler decided to wipe out the Jews on a large scale. In the spring of 1942, Pavel's mother and eldest brother and sister-in-law were deported.They died soon afterwards in separate concentration camps, and Pavel's mother was murdered in the gas chamber. During the last few months there, Fried stopped painting.The news that the three members of the Pavel family died in the concentration camps came one after another, and more and more people were deported. In the late autumn of 1942, the notice of their own deportation finally arrived. Friede was unusually calm. A local shopkeeper recalled that Friede walked into her shop and said, "Hitler invited me to the meeting. Do you have any warm clothes?" The shopkeeper gave her a gray The jacket, which is warm and strong, refuses to take money no matter what.Fried ended up giving her a painting. Her friend Hilde had come all the way from Hamburg after hearing the news, to give her old friend some support.They boxed together, took it out again and again, and repacked it.A person can only carry fifty kilograms of items, and they hesitate helplessly, should they bring one spoon or two?To resist staining, Fried dyed the sheets a dark color.Hilde found it so natural for Fried to think about continuing her children's art education.She dyed the quilts and said that these can also be used as props when the children are acting. If they are dyed green and the children wear them, they can symbolize the forest.Friede was still wondering if he had brought enough paper and pens for the children. "There were so many details to consider," Heard said, "that she didn't even have time to be afraid." Pavel and Freed passed through the transit station, where all their valuables were seized. On December 17, 1942, they arrived at the Jewish ghetto established by the Nazis: Theresienstadt and became prisoners.Freed's number is 548 and Pavel's is 549.A total of 650 Jews arrived at the same time. When the "World War II" ended in 1945, only 52 of them survived. Theresienstadt, formerly known as Theresienstadt, was a castle in the 18th century and later became a Czech town with a population of 6,000. In 1942, the Nazis forcibly moved all the residents out, ordered 65,000 Jews to move in, and established a concentrated residential area aimed at "completely solving the Jewish problem".This is actually a transit point, through which 140,000 Jews were transferred to other concentration camps, and 88,000 were sent to death camps, most of whom were sent to the famous Auschwitz concentration camp. In concentrated living areas, men, women and children live separately and collectively. Fifteen thousand children were among the Jews who lived here.School-like educational programs are prohibited.In the name of cultural leisure, however, Freed and other artists and scholars began to educate children formally.Freed lived in building L410, which is a dormitory for girls.Hannah, the girl mentioned at the beginning of this article, whose life story was only discovered in 2000, lives in this building and is also a student of Fried.Fried immediately threw himself into the art education of his children.She desperately collects any paper she can possibly use for painting, most of which are used old paper that is discarded. Freed loves children, and also cuts into psychology from the perspective of art education. Therefore, she is the most suitable teacher for these imprisoned children who have lost their parents.She knew how to lead them out of sad cul-de-sacs.有一次，从德国来的一些男孩来到她的课堂上，他们的父亲，被纳粹当着这些孩子的面枪毙了。他们完全是吓呆了的样子，相互紧紧靠在一起，双手放在膝盖中间。一开始，看到他们，弗利德就转过头去，想忍住泪水，可她回转来的时候，孩子们还是看到她眼中满含着泪水，并且止不住地流下来。 他们一起大哭了一场。然后，他们跟着弗利德去洗手，弗利德像一个教师那样严肃地说，你们一定要把手洗干净，否则不能画画。接着，她拿来纸和颜料，很快把孩子的注意力吸引到她的课程中。 所有来到这里的孩子，都有过自己非常的经历。其必然的结果就是巨大的心理损伤。纳粹所代表的邪恶，毁灭着文明的物质存在，更在毁灭人的心灵。在弗利德看来，保护人类内心真纯、善良和美好的世界，保存人的创造欲望和想象力，浇灌这样的种子，让它开花结果，是最自然和重要的事情。因此，她的儿童艺术教育，是在引导孩子们的心灵走出集中营，让他们闭上眼睛，想象过去和平宁静的生活，想象看到过的美丽风景，让自己的幻想飞翔。她带着他们来到房子顶楼的窗口，让他们体验蓝天和远处的山脉，画下大自然的呼吸。 在写出弗利德之前，我在各种不同的书里，读到弗利德在集中居住区教孩子画画的故事。直到我读到弗利德完整的人生篇章，我才第一次，对她进入集中营这一时段，不再感到吃惊。对于弗利德来说，这是最顺理成章最自然的事情。 她热爱孩子，也热爱艺术，探究艺术怎样被引发和生长，怎样表现和丰富人的内心，怎样从心理上疏导释放和打破对自由思维的囚禁，那是她一生在迷恋地做着的事情。是的，这里的孩子需要她，而她也需要这些孩子。是他们使得她在如此可怕的地方，心灵不走向枯竭。 她依然在创造着，在思索着，她也在坚持画画，与其他所有集中营画家的显着区别，是他们都在用画笔记录集中营地狱般的生活，惟有她，依然在画着花卉、人物和风景。她在记录和研究儿童艺术活动的意义和目的，在探讨成人世界应该怎样对待儿童的世界。她问道：“为什么成人要让孩子尽快地变得和自己一样？我们对自己的世界真的感到那么幸福和满意吗？儿童并不仅仅是一个初级的、不成熟的、准备前往成人世界的平台……我们在把孩子从他们对自然的理解能力中引开。因此我们也就阻挡了自己理解自然的能力。” 她还在考虑根据自己的教育实践，写一本《作为对儿童心理医治的艺术》。在地下室里，她为孩子们悄悄地开了画展。 还组织他们排演了儿童剧。在最恶劣的现实条件下，她让自己的精神生活在一个正常的世界里。同时，也让这些孩子通过她指导的艺术活动尽量做到：身体被囚禁的时候，精神还是健康和自由的。 那远非是我以前想象的，仅仅是一个人的爱心；这是从20世纪初开始的，那一个又一个伟大的艺术教育和艺术哲学大师们，一代代交接着的、精神和思想传递的一环。在这里，第一次世界大战无法扼杀的维也纳的艺术学校在继续，被希特勒关闭的包豪斯在继续。弗利德和孩子们在一起，没有建造武器去与邪恶拼杀；他们在构筑一个有着宁静幻想的、健康心灵的，也是愉悦视觉的美的境界。面对强势力量，他们能够说：有一些能力，是邪恶永远无法战胜的。 Fives 在特莱西恩施塔特的囚徒头上，一直笼罩着死亡的阴影。就在这个小镇，三年里有三万三千多名囚徒死于恶劣的生活条件，其中包括弗利德的父亲和继母。在他们死去之后，弗利德才知道他们也曾在这里住过。更恐怖的，是关于遣送到死亡营的传闻。所有的人都知道，遣送通知是最可怕的东西。 1944年9月，巴维尔和其他共五千名男囚徒，一起接到了将在28日被遣送的通知。弗利德立即扔下一切，来到决定名单的委员会，要求与丈夫同行。四年前，她拿着护照却拒绝离开危险的捷克，今天她明知前面是死亡的威胁，却义无反顾地要求前去。 弗利德被拒绝之后，再次坚决地要求把自己补进下一批的遣送名单。朋友们都劝她留下，她也有充足的高尚的理由留下 ——孩子们和工作需要她。可是，对弗利德来说，思维的逻辑是那么自然。这样的逻辑，和她全部的思维存在，是合为一体的：她爱自己的丈夫，她要和巴维尔在一起。 她的要求被批准了。在离开前，她做的最后一件事情，是和L410宿舍的管理员韦利·格罗格（Willy groag）一起，小心地包好所有孩子们的画作，抬上阁楼，藏在一个安全的地方。 巴维尔离开的九天之后，一千五百五十名囚徒，都是妇女和儿童，被装上运牲畜的闷罐车送走。日夜兼程，两天以后的中午，她们到达奥斯威辛。第二天一早，1944年10月9日，她们中的绝大多数人，被送入毒气室谋杀。其中，就有四十六岁的女艺术家弗利德·迪克—布朗德斯。 在“二战”刚刚结束的1945年，8月底的一天，幸存下来的韦利·格罗格，提着一个巨大的手提箱，来到了布拉格的犹太人社区中心。箱子里是将近四千五百张弗利德的孩子们的绘画。那些画作的主人，绝大多数已经被谋杀在纳粹的毒气室里。一万五千名曾经生活在特莱西恩施塔特的犹太孩子，只有一百多名存活下来。在集中居住区时期，弗利德停止了在自己的画作上签名。可是，在她的要求下，这四千五百张画作，每一张都有孩子自己的签名。 人们一直熟诵着那句名言：在奥斯威辛以后，写诗是残酷的。在很长时间里，人们无法理解和接受：在集中营之中，绘画依然美丽。这些被冒着生命危险保存下来的犹太儿童的图画，曾被久久冷落，没有人懂得弗利德，也没有人懂得这些儿童画的价值。 韦利·格罗格说：“随着时间的流淌，他们懂了。” 集中营儿童幸存者回忆自己画这张画时说：是因为弗利德告诉他们“用光明来记忆黑暗，用黑暗来记忆光明”。 Notes: 将近四千五百张由弗利德的学生在特莱西恩施塔特集中居住区创作的绘画作品，现在在布拉格犹太人博物馆收藏和展出，被称为“人类文化皇冠上的钻石”。 弗利德的丈夫巴维尔，因弗利德鼓励他学会的木工手艺而躲过一劫，从集中营幸存下来。巴维尔后来再婚。弗利德在进入特莱西恩施塔特之前的画作，在巴维尔1971年去世后，由他的孩子们保存。 弗利德在特莱西恩施塔特集中居住区的部分作品，成为美国洛杉矶Simon Wiesenthal Center的收藏。 本文主要资料来源：FriedlDicker-Brandeis，Vienna1898-Auschwitz1944。