“Like discovering the Holy Grail”: Auschwitz Museum unveils Alfred Kantor’s extraordinary Holocaust sketchbook

Few Holocaust testimonies are as vivid and comprehensive as the illustrated diary created by Alfred Kantor. Born in Prague in 1923, the young Jewish artist was deported to Terezín in December 1941 as part of the first transport of men sent to establish the ghetto. Two years later, he was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where he was imprisoned in the so-called Terezín Family Camp before being transferred to the Schwarzheide concentration camp in Germany. Against all odds, Kantor survived. After enduring a death march in the final months of the war, he returned to Terezín, where he was liberated in May 1945. In the months that followed, he reconstructed his wartime experiences in an extraordinary album comprising 127 watercolours, drawings and written commentaries. The result is both a deeply personal memoir and an invaluable historical document. Acquired very recently by the Auschwitz Museum, the album is now considered one of the most significant artistic testimonies created by a Holocaust survivor. We met Agnieszka Sieradzka, art historian at the Auschwitz Museum, to discuss the importance of this unique work.