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Helga Weiss was born in Prague, Czech Republic Nov. 10th, 1929 and was the only child. Her father Otto Weiss always encouraged her musically but her talent was the arts. She would always paint anything she saw she said "I always painted what I saw – a man in a meat store."

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Helga was only eight years old when the war began and she would keep a diary where she would draw or write what was happening. In the very first pages of her diary, she drew pictures of the Nazi threats, expulsion of Jews kids, and adults losing their jobs.

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In December of 1941 after Helga Weiss's 12th birthday, She and her family got sent on transport, they asked them to bring only important stuff with them on the train. Eventually, after one whole day of traveling on the train and passing the Polish borders, they were forced off the train and left all their belongings on the train. Helga Weiss and her mother were at the Auschwitz-Birkenau platform and when she was by the Nazi officers she lied about her age because it was the only way to survive. Since Helga Weiss was young she would have been sent to the gas chamber which would kill you.

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The Terezin camp was Helga's first camp and she was lucky to make it out alive because around 15,000 kids were killed and only 100 survived. In the camp, she would stay at this children's home with other girls and started following her father's advice and writing and drawing what she saw. One of her happiest moments was when she saw two girls making a snowman and she drew that. Even though, Terezin was a horrible place with diseases, starvation, lice, etc. Helga met her first bf and he was in his mid-20s and she wasn't even 15 but she said "It was a half-childish love". After a couple of days, she left for a new camp with her mother and she ended up at Auschwitz.

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Helga was sent to the Auschwitz camp and lied again about her age and about her mother being her sister. Helga hated the Auschwitz camps and said "Her 10 days at Auschwitz were worse than the three years at Terezín." Helga and her mother had to shave their heads and Helga couldn't even recognize her mother after it, until she heard her voice. They had to sit outside in the cold with their shaved heads freezing to death.

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The impact she made is Helga lied to the Nazis to help out her mom and herself and were able to survive the Holocaust.

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After a couple of years she became a famous painter in the Czech Republic and wrote a book about her life in the consecration camps. She is still active today and travels around the world to tell her story. She got married to a musician and had one son who is a famous cellist.

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She was sent to 4 different camps Terezin, Auschwitz, Freiberg, and Mauthausen. Helga Weiss spent 4 years of her life in the camps. Now she lives in the apartment she grew up in.

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Her drawing of the Terezin camp

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“all of us—are crying silently, but we don't let our emotions show.” (Weiss )

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2 quotes from Helga's Diary: A Young Girl's Account of Life in a Concentration Camp: 'Together we read Čapek's First Team, R.U.R., The Mother,† and Hugo'...

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https://www.scotsman.com/arts-and-culture/helga-weiss-on-how-she-survived-four-nazi-concentration-camps-1582523

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What to do in Houston? Visit the Czech Center Museum Houston

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Through her diary and art, Helga Weiss tells her story of survival and coping through the Holocausts. After being transported to Terezín at age 14, Helga clung to writing and art, depicting everyday life in the camp. Today her diary and art are known by many and has reached millions.

In an interview with BBC TV Helga Weiss described how much they were allowed to bring to the camp. "We were allowed 50 kg of luggage, so we took just our clothes and something important to us. I took two very small dolls, a pad, watercolors and crayons," Her art became a way of communicating and processing her experiences and feelings in the camp.

Helga's art was greatly encouraged by her father Otto Weiss. After receiving a picture of children in snow, he urged his daughter to "draw what you see". Her art mirrored her diary as she began to illustrate everyday life in the camp. Her art would prove as a medium of understanding the would she was living in.

Her drawings depicted the horrors of Terezin like rations, disease, the lice and bed bugs. The pictures show queues for food; a bleak, basic washroom; a girl ill with tuberculosis; people on stretchers; bread transported in a hearse marked "Welfare for the young". Helga did as her father told her and would later think of the snowman drawing as the first picture, she drew in Terezin, but also the last drawing of hers as a little girl.

Helga would later be sent to four camps, Terezin, Auschwitz, Freiberg, and Mauthausen. In the days leading up to her deportation to Auschwitz, she hid her drawings and poems from her father in the Terezin camp. Helga was one of 100 children to survive from the Terezin camp.

Today, Helga shares her diary and illustrations with the world. The atrocities of the Holocaust will forever be a part of her and in her art. Her diary has been published as well as two more books.

Recently Helga's story was included in the 2019 film Anne Frank Parallel Stories. Helga Weiss, Arianna Szörenyi, Sarah Lichtsztejn-Montard and sisters Andra and Tatiana Bucci share their stories side by side along with Anne Frank. These girls were all around the same age experiencing the Holocaust. The movie portrays their struggles and similarities. These women will go on to share their story and life with millions. Helga Weiss's story will continue through her writing and in her art.

At the Czech Center Museum Houston we are inspired by Helga Weiss and her art. The Creative Activism Project is the museums growing and interactive project. The project allows students to develop critical thinking skills by asking students the following questions: What does it mean to live through a traumatic event? How can we discuss sensitive topics? How can art be used to express empathy?

To answer the following questions, please research the history of the Terezin Concentration Camp and create a work of art based on what you've learned about the children in Terezin and what it means towards our times. Students are welcome to create an illustration representing how the information about Terezin had impacted their perspective on a historical event. In the fall of 2020, we will showcase the art in a special exhibit on Terezin in our museum.

You can share your artwork with us until August 31, 2020
For more information, email: Development@CzechCenter.org

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Helga Weiss - How a young Hero survived Terror through Art Czech Center Museum Houston - A place to celebrate our world's art, music, dance and diverse cultures - What to do in Houston? Visit the Czech Center Museum Houston The Czech Center Museum Houston is a meeting place for Czech and local culture, a place where artists and professionals, Czech and non-Czech alike, can celebrate art, culture and music.

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Through her diary and art, Helga Weiss tells her story of survival and coping through the Holocausts. After being transported to Terezín at age 14, Helga clung to writing and art, depicting everyday life in the camp. Today her diary and art are known by many and has reached millions.