Theo Balden explored the Second World War critically during his time in British exile. He addressed topics such as the despair, distress and misery of the civilian population.
Balden was committed to political enlightenment as a founding member of the Freier Deutscher Kulturbund and as the initiator of the International Club. He participated in exhibitions of the Freier Deutscher Kulturbund in Great Britain and was one of the most active members of the visual artists section alongside Oskar Kokoschka, René Graetz and Paul Hamann.

The theme of the water carrier occupied him in the years 1943-1945. In 1941 Theo Balden had experienced at first hand the bombing attacks on London which destroyed entire streets around King's Cross Station near his London home. The work from 1943 shows a desperate woman who fails to extinguish the fire. The water buckets are empty. It was a theme he revisited in 1944. Yet here the water carrier appears calm and courageous, holding the buckets resolutely. Theo Balden also turned the latter subject into a wood relief in 1945; this, however, has been lost and is now only known from photographs.