Alfred Kantor

Alfred Kantor (7 November 1923, in Prague – 16 January 2003, in Yarmouth, Maine) was a Czech-born Holocaust survivor, artist and author of The Book of Alfred Kantor. His work depicted daily life in the Nazi concentration camps.

Biography Alfred Kantor was expelled in 1941 from the Rottner School of Advertising in Prague after completing only one year of his two-year commercial art program because they had learned of his Jewish identification. This camp was made to delude the public into believing that concentration camps weren't bad. However, thousands still died there. In 1944, the Danish Red Cross and International Red cross came to inspect the camp, but they were only touring on previously determined routes. The Nazis prepared by completely changing the looks of this camp. They installed new shops and even replaced sickly prisoners with healthier ones. After the Red Cross left, the Nazis removed the phony shops and restored the camp to normal. This camp had about 140,000 Jews total transferred in. About 90,000 were deported and about 33,000 died in Theresienstadt. He was assigned to the rebuilding of a synthetic fuel plant. After the war ended Kantor was transported back to Theresienstadt on April 18, 1945, along with 1,000 other prisoners. Of the 1,000 prisoners, only 175 survived the long march back. Kantor ended up playing the glockenspiel in the military band. Kantor then finished his schooling and began working in the advertising business in New York. Others in the book were re-creations since not all art was encouraged in the concentration camps. It was first published in 1971 by McGraw-Hill and the second edition was published in 1987 by Schocken Books.