Contact: Karis Erwin, National WWI Museum and Memorial, 816.888.8122, kerwin@theworldwar.org
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The National WWI Museum and Memorial announced its newest exhibition, What Fit in a Suitcase: Art by WWI POWs in Siberia, opening Thursday, Oct. 15. The exhibition features artwork made by Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war held in a Russian camp in southern Siberia. Carried in a suitcase, the collection made it from Siberia to Austria and, eventually, to America.
Between 1915 and the early 1920s, more than 13,000 Austro-Hungarian and German prisoners of war were held captive in the camp. They faced food scarcity and a harsh climate. Even so, the prisoners built a daily life in captivity. They read, organized classes and, in many cases, made art inspired by their hopes, fears, dreams and observations.
Austrian officer Rudolf Ernst collected his fellow prisoners’ work. When he was released in 1921, he brought the collection home. When he died in 1936, he left it to his daughter, Alice.
In 1938, as Nazi Germany annexed Austria, Alice and her husband, both Jewish, fled to the United States. They were only permitted to take a few of their possessions. Seventeen years after her father brought the collection home to Austria in a suitcase, Alice carried it out the same way.
“The story of how these works survived is remarkable, as is the artwork itself, which shows the full range of what these prisoners saw, imagined and remembered,” said Dr. Chris Juergens, Senior Curator of the National WWI Museum and Memorial. “Each piece is a record of how prisoners held on to their humanity in captivity.”
The Rudolf Ernst Collection is currently on loan at the Museum and Memorial, and funds are being raised to acquire these unique works for the permanent collection. Those interested in supporting the acquisition should visit theworldwar.org/suitcase.
What Fit in a Suitcase is on display in Ellis Gallery and runs through spring 2029. Admission is included in a General Admission ticket.