Exhibition "The Bird-Cage"

Classes were held in a variety of subjects at Laufen, but art was certainly popular, with materials provided by the YMCA and International Red Cross. Postcards of the town were used as a source material to copy, as we can tell from the number of artworks of the same view. The postcards came from guards, who swapped them for Red Cross goods such as chocolate. The art class in Laufen was sometimes allowed out of the camp to sketch local views, such as the Stille Nachtkapelle in Oberndorf.

Some men discovered in Laufen that they had artistic talents, developing the skill as they had nothing else to do. Others were already trained artists, such as the American Josef Nassy, who had Surinamese heritage, and became the art teacher in Laufen.

Nassy produced over two hundred drawings in Laufen, providing a comprehensive picture of the living conditions in Laufen Castle. Reproductions of some of his work can be viewed as part of this exhibition. His artwork is known today, not least because of the scarcity of records and images of Black prisoners of the Nazis.

Robert Hale from Jersey was singled out in a Laufen art exhibition by a visiting Red Cross official, who acted as judge. ‘It is understood that Mr Hale is an amateur and has had little or no training; yet at least two of his exhibits would rank high in any watercolour show in Paris or London’.

Perhaps one of the best remembered artists from Jersey was Henry Barnett, who had studied at the Royal Academy of Arts. Many of his artworks appear in The Bird-Cage, and he designed the 1943 Laufen Christmas card with an image of the camp. It was printed with the help of the Red Cross and given to the men to send to others or back home.

Max Brandel was another of the well-known American artists, and his sketch of the British and American camp seniors graced the cover of The Bird-Cage. Caricatures he drew of his fellow internees can be found in museums in the United States. After the war he lived in New York and continued to publish his artistic work in newspapers and magazines like MAD.