What Fit in a Suitcase: Art by WWI POWs in Siberia

It’s 1915. More than 13,000 Austro-Hungarian and German prisoners of war are forced to labor in a Russian POW camp deep in the harsh environment of southern Siberia. Despite the lack of food and extreme conditions in captivity, life in the camp found footing. Prisoners passed the time reading and organizing classes – many even managed to capture their experiences through art.

Austrian officer Rudolf Ernst collected his fellow POWs’ art depicting their hopes, fears, dreams and observations. When he was released in 1921, he packed up his suitcase and brought his collection home.

Painting of a man in a large winter coat contemplating a big pile of suitcases, trunks and paintings

Alexander (Sándor) Muhits

Hungarian, 1882-1956

Muzeum gondok…. (Museum problems…), 1917

Watercolor and ink on colored paper laid on panel

Painting of two cartoonish men playing cards at a small table

Karóly Liedl

Hungarian, 1896-unknown

Untitled (Card Players)

Graphite, ink, and watercolor on paper

Ernst left it to his daughter Alice when he passed away in 1936. She and her husband, both Jewish, fled Austria two years later as Nazi Germany annexed their homeland in 1938. The few possessions they brought to their new home in the United States included her father’s art collection – what could fit in a suitcase.

These pieces are now on loan to the National WWI Museum and Memorial, which is helping to raise funds to acquire them for the permanent collection.