Thea Weiss

FIRE & ICE : SURVIVAL OF THE SPIRIT

Exhibition dates: 9 October 2011 until 31 January 2012

"Some say the world will end in fire; some say in ice”

This is the beginning of a poem by American poet, Robert Frost (1874 – 1963). It is said he was inspired by a passage from Dante’s Inferno, in which a horrific ending awaits the evil tormentors. Surrounded by the fires of hell, their bodies are submerged in caskets of ice.

Whilst digging in the fields as prisoners at Auschwitz, Lotte and her two sisters smelt the putrid odour of burnt flesh. Looking up to heaven and seeing the black smoke Lotte’s sisters said, “Today is the end of the world.”
In March 1942, Lotte Weiss, an 18 year-old girl, was ripped from the tranquillity of a family life in Czechoslovakia and tossed into the hellhole of Auschwitz concentration camp. She lost her name and became a number, 2065. Her remaining family of seven was taken from her, one by one; they met their fate at the hands of the Nazis.

How does one continue and for what purpose? Who would remain to lament her if she died? Somehow Lotte survived, driven by her belief in the miracles that saved her. Lotte’s embrace of the goodness of life denied the tormentors total success in their killing spree. Her survival represents the victory of the human spirit, a testimony to its determination to survive the most difficult conditions.
 
Lotte has been a guide at the Sydney Jewish Museum since its inception in 1992. Everyone who encounters her feels as if they have known her for years, no matter how brief the conversation. Her words are so powerful that they leave an indelible mark on your mind and soul.

Lotte recorded her story in a memoir, My Two Lives. This powerful narrative provides the inspirational backdrop to Thea Weiss's art.