The Girls Of Room 28_ Friendship, Hope, And Survival In Theresienstadt Part 9

In 1949 Ela was able to fulfill her long-standing wish to immigrate to Israel. There she served in the army for two years, married in 1953, and moved with her husband to the United States in 1958. She has two children and lives in New York State. In recent years, performances of Brundibar Brundibar have brought her all across the United States, where she is an honored guest as an eyewitness to history. She has made it her mission to keep alive the memory of her friends from Theresienstadt. have brought her all across the United States, where she is an honored guest as an eyewitness to history. She has made it her mission to keep alive the memory of her friends from Theresienstadt.

MARIANNE D DEUTSCH was happy beyond belief finally to rejoin Memme, her governess. She lived in Olomouc with her parents and Memme for several years, attending a commercial high school and then pursuing her profession. She married in 1954 and moved to Ostrava with her husband. But before the Soviet Union and its allies could march into Prague in August 1968, bringing the Prague Spring to an abrupt end, she and her husband decided to leave their home and take their ten-year-old son, Peter, with them. "We didn't want to make the same mistake our parents had, who didn't take 'little corporal Hitler' seriously," she says. "We didn't want our children to grow up with their spirits broken. So we left everything behind, apart from two suitcases, and fled to what was then West Germany, by way of Austria." There Marianne and her family built a new life for themselves. was happy beyond belief finally to rejoin Memme, her governess. She lived in Olomouc with her parents and Memme for several years, attending a commercial high school and then pursuing her profession. She married in 1954 and moved to Ostrava with her husband. But before the Soviet Union and its allies could march into Prague in August 1968, bringing the Prague Spring to an abrupt end, she and her husband decided to leave their home and take their ten-year-old son, Peter, with them. "We didn't want to make the same mistake our parents had, who didn't take 'little corporal Hitler' seriously," she says. "We didn't want our children to grow up with their spirits broken. So we left everything behind, apart from two suitcases, and fled to what was then West Germany, by way of Austria." There Marianne and her family built a new life for themselves.

MIRIAM R ROSENZWEIG was liberated from Bergen-Belsen in 1945. Seriously ill with typhoid, she was hospitalized for a few weeks and then taken to Sweden, where she spent a year in a hospital recovering from tuberculosis. She then returned to Prague and immigrated to Israel in 1948. She also lived at Kibbutz Hachotrim for a while and, later, in Haifa. She married, and in 1959 moved with her husband and two sons to California, where a third son was born. She lives, as she says, a pleasant life in Orange County. "I don't concern myself with the past much," she says. "But now that the youngest of us are growing old, like many others I feel that our past should not be forgotten. We kept silent for many years. But now the time has come to speak about our experiences during the war, before it is too late." was liberated from Bergen-Belsen in 1945. Seriously ill with typhoid, she was hospitalized for a few weeks and then taken to Sweden, where she spent a year in a hospital recovering from tuberculosis. She then returned to Prague and immigrated to Israel in 1948. She also lived at Kibbutz Hachotrim for a while and, later, in Haifa. She married, and in 1959 moved with her husband and two sons to California, where a third son was born. She lives, as she says, a pleasant life in Orange County. "I don't concern myself with the past much," she says. "But now that the youngest of us are growing old, like many others I feel that our past should not be forgotten. We kept silent for many years. But now the time has come to speak about our experiences during the war, before it is too late."

Miriam Rosenzweig Jung EVA E ECKSTEIN lost her mother and her two sisters, Hana and Herta, in Auschwitz. She was transported from Auschwitz to Freiburg, near Dresden, where she was put to work in the airplane industry. After the deadly air raid on Dresden in February 1945, the prisoners were loaded onto open cattle cars and transported in the direction of Czechoslovakia. After a week's journey with almost nothing to eat, they arrived somewhere near Plze, where the train halted for a long time. Over the objections of the SS, local women forced their way over to the prisoners, demanded that the cattle-car doors be opened, and brought soup to the starving women. The journey continued and finally came to an end at the Austrian concentration camp of Maut hausen, which was already under the protection of the Red Cross and was liberated by the Americans on May 4. lost her mother and her two sisters, Hana and Herta, in Auschwitz. She was transported from Auschwitz to Freiburg, near Dresden, where she was put to work in the airplane industry. After the deadly air raid on Dresden in February 1945, the prisoners were loaded onto open cattle cars and transported in the direction of Czechoslovakia. After a week's journey with almost nothing to eat, they arrived somewhere near Plze, where the train halted for a long time. Over the objections of the SS, local women forced their way over to the prisoners, demanded that the cattle-car doors be opened, and brought soup to the starving women. The journey continued and finally came to an end at the Austrian concentration camp of Maut hausen, which was already under the protection of the Red Cross and was liberated by the Americans on May 4.

Eva Eckstein Vit Eva returned alone to her hometown of Louny, where she found nothing as it had been. The grocery store and the house that her parents had owned ended up in the hands of collaborators. In 1946 her fiance, Hermann, reappeared, and they were married a year later. Eva lived in Louny with him and their two children through all the difficulties of the Communist regime. In 1968, while Soviet tanks were putting an end to the reforms of the Prague Spring, she and her husband seized the opportunity to leave the country on a tourist visa to Sweden. Sweden became their new homeland, and Eva still lives there today EVA S STERN lost nearly her entire family in the Holocaust. She and her sister Doris eventually immigrated to Israel, where she now lives. An abyss lies between her current life and the years between 1939 and 1945, about which she prefers not to speak. lost nearly her entire family in the Holocaust. She and her sister Doris eventually immigrated to Israel, where she now lives. An abyss lies between her current life and the years between 1939 and 1945, about which she prefers not to speak.

EVA L LANDA's odyssey did not come to an end with the war's end on May 8, 1945. Leaving Gutau, the Polish village where she was liberated by the Red Army in January 1945, she was first taken, still half frozen, to a military hospital in Eylau, in what had been German East Prussia. In April 1945 the hospital was closed, and she was sent farther to the east, eventually ending up in Sysran, an old Russian town on the Volga, not far from Kujbyev, which is now called Samara.

On that journey, Eva met a man who would change her life: Dr. Mer, the head of the train's medical staff and a major in the Soviet army. He took a great interest in his patients, especially in Eva, whom he immediately took to his heart. Dr. Mer, himself a Jew, had lost his parents to the n.a.z.is and lived with his wife in Leningrad. They had no children.

He decided to adopt Eva. "He suggested it to me at once," Eva recalls. "But I didn't want any part of it. I wanted to return to Prague. He told me I had no home in Prague, that I would be put in an orphanage. We were en route for almost three weeks, and Dr. Mer managed to persuade me. I thought that somehow I would be able to return to Prague after the war."

Eva Landa, now Evelina Mer On April 23 they arrived in Sysran, where Eva spent several more weeks in the hospital. Because Dr. Mer's military ambulance train had farther to go, he asked the head doctor at the hospital, Leonid Ostrower-who was both a doctor and a writer-to see to it that Eva would be left where she was if the patients should be transferred elsewhere. A few weeks later, the patients were indeed moved to a civilian hospital, but Eva was left behind alone, among strangers whose language she did not understand.

By May 8 Eva's feet had healed-they did not have to be amputated. For the first time in a long time, she went to the movies.

Eva remained in Sysran until the end of August, when a telegram arrived from Dr. Mer, informing her that he himself could not come for her, but that he had arranged for her trip to Leningrad. And so Eva undertook another arduous journey, this time in the direction of Leningrad, where she finally arrived on August 31, 1945. "It was early in the morning on a rainy day," she recalls. "There was no one there to meet me. My telegram had never arrived. But I did have an address- Dostoyevsky Street 36. And there I would spend the next eleven years of my life."

Cut off from her homeland and roots, Eva began her new life in distant Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) with an entirely new ident.i.ty-as the daughter of Dr. Mer and his wife. She had no success in trying to learn about the fate of her immediate family, her relatives, or her friends. The letters she wrote to the Red Cross went unanswered.

For Eva's adoptive parents, any talk about her past was taboo. She was to act as if her childhood-the years before 1945-had never happened. The fact Eva was a Jew, a survivor of the concentration camps Theresienstadt and Auschwitz, was a stigma that had to be concealed in the anti-Semitic Soviet Union. Just to speak of it was dangerous, and Eva was warned never to do so. When she returned to school in 1947, she told no one of her past. Nor did she say a word about it when a relative of Dr. Mer talked about her own experiences in Bergen-Belsen. And how did Eva live with this?

"That's the sort of question to which I have no answer. I don't know. I wrote to my friends Marta and Anita, but I never received an answer. I had no idea where they were. I lost all contact. And so I simply accepted what had happened, and what was still happening, as facts. Maybe I even actively partic.i.p.ated in this game. I was young. I was back in school. I wanted to make up for all that I had missed. I wanted to get a good education; I always wanted that. I learned a great deal, and was rewarded for my efforts. In 1950 I finished school with honors for the best essay-in Russian! I was proud of that. I had new friends. I never spoke about the past."

In 1953 Eva married a Russian-Jewish architect. She received her doctorate in German studies and became a university lecturer. In 1960 she finally succeeded in obtaining a visa for a trip to Czechoslovakia. The decisive factor for her had been a book she came across, The Death Factory: Doc.u.ments on Auschwitz The Death Factory: Doc.u.ments on Auschwitz, by Ota Kraus and Erich Kulka. She wrote the authors a letter, which they arranged to have published in various Czech newspapers, and to which friends and one distant relative in Prague responded. She then received the invitation that enabled her to take a journey into her past. She traveled there alone in 1960, leaving her husband and four-year-old daughter at home.

Once in Prague, Eva was confronted with the shocking news that she had long ago been declared dead, and that the a.s.sets of her parents and grandparents-including real estate of considerable value-had been inherited by a distant cousin of her father.

In 1990 her son, Viktor Nimark, a painter and architect, moved to Germany. Her daughter remained in Russia with her family. Since then Eva, whose husband died in 1985, has been making three cities her home: St. Petersburg, Prague, and Frankfurt.

Handa Pollak Drori HANDA P POLLAK had been taken from Auschwitz to Oederan in Saxony, together with Tella and Helga Pollak, and she remained there as a worker in a munitions factory until mid-April 1945. The company, Agricola Refrigeration Machinery, Inc., was an extension of the Flossenburg concentration camp. As the war's front lines moved closer, the workers were supposed to be taken to another camp. But one camp after another was being liberated, and roads and railways were in a state of chaos. They were shunted from place to place in open cattle cars for weeks on end, until they finally wound up in Theresienstadt. had been taken from Auschwitz to Oederan in Saxony, together with Tella and Helga Pollak, and she remained there as a worker in a munitions factory until mid-April 1945. The company, Agricola Refrigeration Machinery, Inc., was an extension of the Flossenburg concentration camp. As the war's front lines moved closer, the workers were supposed to be taken to another camp. But one camp after another was being liberated, and roads and railways were in a state of chaos. They were shunted from place to place in open cattle cars for weeks on end, until they finally wound up in Theresienstadt.

Handa and Tella returned to Prague on May 12. There they waited in vain for Karel Pollak; they had no better luck with inquiries sent to Olbramovice. Still hoping for his return, Handa spent a few weeks in Olbramovice with a family that had once been friends with her father.

Handa will always remember with profound horror the moment when she finally learned of her father's fate. It was in the loft of a barn where Handa was hiding from the Russians together with the daughter of the family with whom she was living. Tella had been in Olbramovice the day before. She had wanted to tell Handa about her father, but couldn't bring herself to do it and had told the family instead, which is how the daughter learned of it. It was from this girl that Handa had to learn the awful news. "Your father's kicked the bucket," the girl hissed. "And if you cry, I'll slap you like you've never been slapped before."

Karel Pollak had died in a secondary camp attached to Dachau on March 9, 1945, "of despair," as a man who was with him to the end later reported. "After his bout with typhoid," Handa says, "my father, my robust father, had become a specter. He was so weakened that he believed that if he was in such a state, there was no chance that we were still alive. He lost all hope and didn't know for whom he should go on living."

Of the thirty-one members of her immediate family who had been deported by the n.a.z.is, Handa was the only one to survive. Tella wanted to rebuild her own life in Prague as a piano teacher, and she saw to it that Handa returned to high school and learned to play the piano. Handa's uncle, Karel Anerl, was looking after her, too. But Handa did not feel that anything was keeping her in Prague. She was drawn increasingly to Hanka Wertheimer's circle of friends, many of whom wanted to immigrate to Palestine. "I was not very much of a Zionist, but I wanted a new beginning," she says.

In February 1949 Handa immigrated to Israel as part of a Youth Aliyah group. Tella followed her not long after. Handa found a new home at Kibbutz Hachotrim, where she and her husband still live today.

After she was released from quarantine, HELGA POLLAK HELGA POLLAK was not sure whether she should go to a sanatorium in Switzerland. Then came a surprise-a cousin from Kyjov arrived on a Russian truck, and from that moment on she was certain that she would greatly prefer to go home with her father. "Besides which," she says, "I had found a louse on my pillow, and I said to myself, 'I'm not staying one day longer. I have survived all this, and I'm not going to die of typhus. I'm leaving.' The train to Brno was already there. And the three of us took it to Brno, and from there to Kyjov." Soon they were faced with a terrible fact: Sixty-three members of Otto Pollak's family would never return-not Aunt Marta or Uncle Fritz, not her cousin Joi or little Lea. was not sure whether she should go to a sanatorium in Switzerland. Then came a surprise-a cousin from Kyjov arrived on a Russian truck, and from that moment on she was certain that she would greatly prefer to go home with her father. "Besides which," she says, "I had found a louse on my pillow, and I said to myself, 'I'm not staying one day longer. I have survived all this, and I'm not going to die of typhus. I'm leaving.' The train to Brno was already there. And the three of us took it to Brno, and from there to Kyjov." Soon they were faced with a terrible fact: Sixty-three members of Otto Pollak's family would never return-not Aunt Marta or Uncle Fritz, not her cousin Joi or little Lea.

Helga Pollak Kinsky In 1946 Helga's greatest wish was fulfilled: She joined her mother in London. There she graduated from high school and attended college. In 1951 she married an emigrant from Rossl in former East Prussia, who had escaped the n.a.z.is by moving to Bangkok and building a new life there. Helga first moved to Bangkok with him, then to Addis Ababa. This retreat to the Far East satisfied a very basic need. "For a long time after liberation, I didn't want to speak German. Or even think of building a house or buying one. For years I wanted to be prepared to leave Vienna at the drop of a hat."

Gradually her life began to take a more normal course. In 1957 Helga, her husband, and their two children returned to Vienna. They wanted to provide the finest possible education for their daughter, who had been born deaf, and Vienna offered the best educational opportunities for her. Another reason for their return was that Helga wanted to be near her beloved father, who lived in Vienna until he pa.s.sed away in 1978.

Two doc.u.mentary films by the American filmmaker Zuzana Justman include segments on Helga's story: Terezin Diary Terezin Diary (1989) and (1989) and Voices of the Children Voices of the Children (1997). (1997).

Ever since the first staged reading of Helga's Diary: A Girl of Room 28 Helga's Diary: A Girl of Room 28, in Freiburg, Germany, in 2002, Helga Pollak has frequently accompanied me on the traveling exhibition "The Girls of Room 28, L 410, Theresienstadt," to performances of the children's opera Brundibar Brundibar, and to other related events, where she offers her personal eye witness account and reads from her diary. In May 2005 Helga was a guest of the Theodor Heuss Gymnasium in Freiburg for the premiere of the play Ghetto Tears 1944: The Girls of Room 28 Ghetto Tears 1944: The Girls of Room 28, directed by Elmar Wittmann. The model for the main character is the diarist Helga Pollak.

ANNA F FLACH ("Flaka") was fortunate in that her parents and siblings survived the Holocaust. But she never again saw most of her relatives. ("Flaka") was fortunate in that her parents and siblings survived the Holocaust. But she never again saw most of her relatives.

A new life began for Flaka in Brno. She devoted herself to music and became a pianist, singer, and professor of song and piano at the Brno Conservatory and the Janaek Academy. In 1955 she married the oboist Vitelav Hanu; each has shared in the other's brilliant musical career. They have been guest performers together at countless concerts both at home and abroad-in Beijing from 1959 to 1961, in Beirut from 1966 to 1969, and in Sydney in 1968 and 1969.

Anna Ha.n.u.sova-Flachova Their son, Toma Hanu, who was born in 1970, is an internationally renowned conductor. He founded the New Czech Chamber Orchestra and is permanent conductor of both the Prague Chamber Orchestra and the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra in Bratislava. In 2007 he was appointed music director of the National Theatre Brno.

Anna, who remains devoted to promoting music, belongs to the Dvoak Society in Brno while continuing her work as an educator. She is deeply committed to preserving the memory of Theresienstadt composers, especially Pavel Haas, who was born in Brno. Her unflagging efforts have resulted in many musical events. Over the last few years she has often served on the jury of the annual Verfemte Musik (banned music) instrumental and vocal compet.i.tions in Schwerin, Germany, which are sponsored by the Jeunesses Musicales of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and the Schwerin Conservatory.

Anna also serves on the board of the Theresienstadt Initiative in Prague.

Since the touring exhibition "The Girls of Room 28, L 410, Theresienstadt" first opened in Schwerin, Germany, on September 23, 2004, with the a.s.sistance of the Stiftung Erinnerung, Verantwortung, und Zukunft (the Foundation for Remembrance, Responsibility, and Future) and the Verfemte Musik festival, Anna has frequently been invited to appear as a witness to history. In the course of the many events and activities connected with this project, Anna and the other girls have not only shared their experiences, especially with the younger generation, but experienced wonderful moments together and made friends in many parts of Germany, the Czech Republic, and Austria. One particular highlight was the opening of the exhibition at the Deutsche Bundestag in conjunction with National Holocaust Memorial Day in January 2008; eight of the girls from Room 28 were invited to Berlin to partic.i.p.ate.

What Anna has said about her motivation for involvement applies equally to all the girls: "I see it as my duty to speak about our experiences in the Holocaust, all the more in view of the growing chorus of voices denying, ignoring, or belittling it. I do not want those years to be forgotten or denied."

ACKNOWLEDGMENTSMy G.o.d, my G.o.d May these things never cease: The sand and the sea The rus.h.i.+ng of the waters The lightning in the heavens The prayer of man-Hannah SeneshMore than ten years have pa.s.sed since I first met the Girls of Room 28 and we began to hatch the plan of writing a book to commemorate the murdered children of Theresienstadt and the adults who lovingly and selflessly devoted themselves to the well-being of all the children there. I was also intent on relating the background and tragic story behind the first performances of the children's opera Brundibar Brundibar, which is how my own interest in this project began.I would like to thank Frank Harders-Wuthenow, the music publisher who in 1994 first brought to my attention Hans Krasa's children's opera and steered me toward a course on which I have remained ever since. Never has a project mesmerized me as this one has. Today I know why: It offered challenges, experiences, encounters, and friends.h.i.+ps that have enriched my life and expanded my horizons.I would never have been equal to these challenges had a series of individuals not stepped forward time and again to support the project. In 1999 Thomas Rietschel, then secretary-general of the Jeunesses Musicales Deutschland (JMD), got hold of my book proposal and decided to invite the Girls of Room 28 and me to Weikersheim, where the JMD is based, so we could work on the book together. In 1996 Rietschel had launched an educational Brundibar Brundibar project and thus played an essential part in making this children's opera known throughout the world. project and thus played an essential part in making this children's opera known throughout the world.An invitation ensued to Schwerin, where the director of the Jeunesses Musicales Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Volker Ahmels, had started an international compet.i.tion for young musicians called Verfemte Musik (Forbidden Music). From the very beginning, the Girls of Room 28 project was part of the cultural and historical program accompanying this compet.i.tion. It was in Schwerin that the exhibition "The Girls of Room 28, L 410, Theresienstadt" first opened on September 23, 2004. Since then, it has made its way throughout Germany and Austria. Thanks to an American donor, Dr. Alfred Bader, there is now a Czech version as well, organized by the Jewish Museum in Prague/Brno.On October 3, 2002, there was a staged reading in Schwerin from the then-unpublished ma.n.u.script of the book. To our happy surprise, a guest at the reading, Barbara Zeisl-Schonberg, professor emerita of German at Pomona College and the daughter of the Viennese composer Ernst Zeisl, who had emigrated to the United States, spontaneously offered to translate the ma.n.u.script into English-and did so because, as she told us, she wanted to help us bring the book to the United States. Many thanks, dear Barbara, for your selfless, wonderful dedication!I am also deeply indebted to Susan Cernyak-Spatz, survivor of Auschwitz and a.s.sociate professor emerita at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. She translated portions of an early draft of the ma.n.u.script into English, and thus buoyed the hopes of the Girls of Room 28 that this book might someday appear in English.Trevor Glover went to great lengths to help us achieve this goal. Aware of the compelling nature and significance of the children's opera Brundibar Brundibar, he embarked from his home in London on a fervent search for an English-language publisher at a very early stage of the project. Unfortunately, he was not able to place the book at that time. Still, his belief in it was not in vain-it helped me move the project ahead. I am deeply sorry that I can thank him only in my thoughts. Trevor died on September 12, 2007.This trip down memory lane leads me right back to when the American journalist and author Peter Wyden was an integral part of my life. I owe so much to him, and it pains me to have to express my thanks to him posthumously as well. I began working with him in 1984 in Berlin, compiling information and conducting countless interviews, most of them for two of his books: Wall: The Inside Story of Divided Berlin Wall: The Inside Story of Divided Berlin and and Stella: One Woman's True Tale of Evil, Betrayal, and Survival in Hitler's Germany Stella: One Woman's True Tale of Evil, Betrayal, and Survival in Hitler's Germany. I learned what it meant to work with source material, to carry out meticulous research, and to stick to the facts-and just how much tenacity, stamina, and creativity are required to tackle a big subject and to put a book out. It saddens me to realize that my good friend and mentor will not be there when this book comes out in America.In Germany I was told that I had little cause for hope that this book would ever be published in the United States. But here it is, thanks to Sebastian Ritscher at the literary agency Mohrbooks in Zurich, to my devoted American literary agent, Alison Bond, and to my wonderful editor at Schocken Books, Altie Karper. Thank you so much! You have made me and the Girls of Room 28 very happy. And although it took several years for the book to find a home with an American publisher, the dream has become a reality, a result of the dedication on the part of these editors and agents, and of Sh.e.l.ley Frisch, an outstanding translator who rendered the text in her native English and whose great care, attention to detail, and exquisite sensitivity to the story and the people involved gave it an authentic tone. Many thanks, dear Sh.e.l.ley! The girls no longer have to await the outcome with baited breath-they can now revel in the finished product.I can still hear their eager questions: When will the book be finished? Who will publish it? We're not getting any younger, Hannelore! Our conversations kept circling around a single question: When? It was certainly a long and difficult process to turn an idea into a full-fledged book. I try not to recall every twist and turn in this arduous route-just the positive outcome. And it was worth every bit of the effort! I really got to know the Girls of Room 28. No matter how impatient they grew, no matter what doubts gnawed at them, no matter what difficulties they faced, they always stuck by me unconditionally. We grew to be a strong group. This has been the finest part of this project. And so to the girls I say: Thank you. Thank you for your wonderful cooperation. Thank you above all for your unshakable confidence, without which I could never have written this book!I would be remiss if I failed to mention another mundane but essential source of a.s.sistance-the financial support I have received for this book. I have lost count of how many publishers and potential sponsors I contacted, how many grant applications I submitted in the course of this project. I only know that now and then good fortune came our way, and at each happy financial juncture the project leaped ahead. I therefore offer my heartfelt thanks to the Maria Strecker-Daelen Foundation, the Foreign Office of Germany, the German-Czech Fund for the Future, the Robert Bosch Foundation, and the Walther Seinsch Memorial Fund.That I was finally able to devote myself to writing the ma.n.u.script for ten uninterrupted months was made possible by a generous grant from the commissioner for the Office of Government Affairs for Culture and Media in Germany, and the advocacy of ministry secretary Dr. Matthias Buth, supported by Dr. Hanna Nogossek, now at the German History Museum in Berlin (DHM). I am very grateful for this help from the German government, which allowed me to complete the decisive last step.My cordial thanks go to the staffs of various archives, especially to the Jewish Museum in Prague and to Alisah Schiller and Anita Tarsi of the Archive Beit Theresienstadt in Givat Chaim Ichud, Israel. Sadly, my thanks to Anita Frank and Alisah Shek come too late for these lovely women to read them in print.I also mourn the death of people whom I interviewed and who became very precious to me: w.i.l.l.y Groag (19142001), who conveyed such a vivid picture of his experiences in Prague and Theresienstadt and of life in the Girls' Home; the violinist Paul Kling (19282005), who became a steadfast friend from the time we first met in 1996 in New York, and whose love for music and n.o.bility of spirit became a source of inspiration; and Thomas Mandl (19292007), who impressed me with his outstanding memory and his philosophical and kind nature. The death in 2007 of Paul Aron Sandfort (aka Paul Rabinowitsch), the trumpeter in Brundibar Brundibar and a close friend, greatly saddened us all. and a close friend, greatly saddened us all.I also want to thank pianist Edith Kraus in Jerusalem and Alice Sommer in London, whose one-hundredth birthday on November 26, 2003, I will never forget. Nor will I forget the moment when Anna Hanu thanked her for the lifelong inspiration she has received from Alice's music, particularly her concert of Chopin etudes in Theresienstadt. This precious moment was caught on film for a doc.u.mentary about the Girls of Room 28, directed by Bill Treharne Jones and edited by Paul A. Bellinger, both of London. I trust that this film, large parts of which were shot in Spindlermuhle, Prague, Theresienstadt, and London, will eventually find the support it needs to be completed and shown. Thank you, Paul and Bill, for your unwavering faith and for your commitment.I was unfortunately unable to include all the stories I heard, but everyone who shared their experiences with me made an essential contribution to the project as a whole. I would like to thank Eva Herrmann, Dagmar Liebl, Greta (Hofmeister) Klingsberg, Ruth Brossler, Zdenka Fantl, Margit Silberfeld, Zvi (Horst) Cohn, Leopold Lowy, and George Brady.Special thanks go to Helga Hosk-Weiss, who once lived next door to the Girls of Room 28. It was in 1996, in her apartment in Prague and at the invitation of Ela Weissberger, that I first met several of these women. Helga Hosk-Weiss is a wonderful painter. As a child she drew what she saw in the ghetto, which is why the touring exhibiton is called "Draw What You See." Her paintings can be seen throughout the world. I was pleased to read in a German review of my book: "The [children's] drawings in particular, of which those by twelve-year-old Helga Weiss of Room 24 in the same Home have become the best known, can now be viewed against the horrific backdrop of daily life in the ghetto from the perspective of an unbiased child."A complete list of everyone who is inextricably linked with this book project needs to include a tribute to two individuals who accompanied us from beginning to end, and whose presence at the annual meetings in Spindlermuhle was key to our success: Micky Kreiner and Abraham Weingarten, the husbands of Vera and Hanka. Their devotion and amiability, and their joy in spending time with us and in working on our project, helped spur us on to achieve our goal. Thanks, dear Micky! Thanks, dear Abraham!I owe a debt of grat.i.tude to historian Vojtch Blodig of the Theresienstadt Memorial, who responded to all my inquiries and offered valuable insights. He also checked the historical accuracy of the ma.n.u.script. Thank you, Dr. Blodig, for your invaluable a.s.sistance!Last but not least, I would like to thank all the people who accompanied me on the long road I have traveled, and who always offered their kind support when I needed it, in particular Tilman Kannegiesser and, again, Frank Harders-Wuthenow, both of the musical agency Boosey & Hawkes in Berlin, as well as my dear friend Eva Wuthenow. And I cannot fail to mention still others who helped breathe life into this book: Nicolette Richter, who was the first to volunteer to proofread the ma.n.u.script long before there was the prospect of a publisher; Annette Anton, my enormously capable German literary agent; and Klaus Fricke and Jurgen Bolz, my editors at Droemer Verlag and Aufbau Verlag, which published a new German edition in 2008.This English-language translation was greatly enhanced by two people. My heartfelt thanks go to Ernest Seinfeld of Connecticut, a survivor of Theresienstadt and Auschwitz, who offered valuable suggestions. I am equally grateful to Gabriel Fawcett, a young British historian, translator, and historical tour guide who is based in Berlin. I only wish I had meet him earlier. Gabriel a.s.sisted me in proofreading the English translation and displayed an extraordinary feel for language and knowledge of history. The book has benefited from Gabriel's advice on how the girls' story fits into the larger context of the Holocaust and World War II.A very personal thank-you goes to my daughter, Hester, who is now seventeen years old. Since the age of four, she has lived with the melodies of Brundibar Brundibar and with a mother who has always been busy doing research, making phone calls, traveling, and writing a book. It certainly hasn't been easy for her. But whenever I found my spirits flagging, she came through miraculously, urging me on by saying, "Mom, you can do it." How could I have disappointed her? Thank you, sweetheart. and with a mother who has always been busy doing research, making phone calls, traveling, and writing a book. It certainly hasn't been easy for her. But whenever I found my spirits flagging, she came through miraculously, urging me on by saying, "Mom, you can do it." How could I have disappointed her? Thank you, sweetheart.

NOTES.

* Hannah Senesh was born in Budapest in 1921. A Zionist, she arrived in Palestine in September 1938. She joined the active resistance to the n.a.z.is and partic.i.p.ated in a parachute drop over Yugoslavia on March 13, 1944. The goal of her squadron was to liberate Allied pilots whose planes had been shot down over enemy territory. When Hannah crossed the border into Hungary she was captured by the Germans and sent to a prison in Budapest, where she was executed on November 4, 1944. In Israel, Hannah Senesh is regarded as a national heroine.

ONE Spindlermuhle, Czech Republic, Autumn 2000 Spindlermuhle, Czech Republic, Autumn 2000 1. The Bielefeld production was the first postwar production of The Bielefeld production was the first postwar production of Brundibar Brundibar on a major stage. The translation of the text by Frank Harders-Wuthenow and Michael Harre is now the authorized version, published by Boosey & Hawkes/Bote & Bock Music Publishers, and the basis for more recent productions of the opera. It is an unusual success story that owes a great deal to the Jeunesses Musicales Deutschland (JMD) and especially to the commitment of its former general secretary, Thomas Rietschel. In 1996 the JMD initiated the pedagogical on a major stage. The translation of the text by Frank Harders-Wuthenow and Michael Harre is now the authorized version, published by Boosey & Hawkes/Bote & Bock Music Publishers, and the basis for more recent productions of the opera. It is an unusual success story that owes a great deal to the Jeunesses Musicales Deutschland (JMD) and especially to the commitment of its former general secretary, Thomas Rietschel. In 1996 the JMD initiated the pedagogical Brundibar Brundibar Project, which had an enormous impact throughout the world. It must also be noted, however, that even before there was a score or piano reduction or a text of Project, which had an enormous impact throughout the world. It must also be noted, however, that even before there was a score or piano reduction or a text of Brundibar Brundibar, Veronika Gruters, a nun and music teacher at the St. Ursula Gymnasium in Freiburg, worked with a group of students and went to great lengths to stage the opera in July 1985. In May 1986 this same ensemble toured Israel, giving four performances of Brundibar Brundibar. Veronika Gruters had discovered the opera by way of the film of Brundibar- die Kinderoper von Theresienstadt [Brundibar-the Children's Opera of Theresienstadt] Brundibar- die Kinderoper von Theresienstadt [Brundibar-the Children's Opera of Theresienstadt], Cineropa-Film (Munich, 1955), directed by Walter Kruttner.

2. The feature is now available on a CD produced by Austrian Radio (ORF): Edition Abseits, EDA 015-2, together with a second CD of the opera The feature is now available on a CD produced by Austrian Radio (ORF): Edition Abseits, EDA 015-2, together with a second CD of the opera Brundibar Brundibar in coproduction with Southwest German Radio (SWR), in a 1997 production directed by Friedemann Keck. in coproduction with Southwest German Radio (SWR), in a 1997 production directed by Friedemann Keck.

3. Fredy Hirsch's speech on the one-year anniversary of the Boys' Home L 417, mid-1943. Typescript, Jewish Museum in Prague, Terezin Collection, Inv. No. 304/1. Fredy Hirsch's speech on the one-year anniversary of the Boys' Home L 417, mid-1943. Typescript, Jewish Museum in Prague, Terezin Collection, Inv. No. 304/1.

4. Ibid. Ibid.

5. Livia Rothkirchen, "Der geistige Widerstand in Theresienstadt" ["Intellectual Resistance in Theresienstadt"], in Livia Rothkirchen, "Der geistige Widerstand in Theresienstadt" ["Intellectual Resistance in Theresienstadt"], in Theresienstadter Studien und Dok.u.mente 1997 Theresienstadter Studien und Dok.u.mente 1997, ed. Miroslav Karn, Raimund Kemper, and Margita Karna (Prague: Edition Theresienstadter Initiative Academia, 1997), pp. 11840.

6. "Musik in Theresienstadt" ["Music in Theresienstadt"], in "Musik in Theresienstadt" ["Music in Theresienstadt"], in Theresienstadt Theresienstadt, ed. Rudolf Iltis, Frantiek Ehrmann, and Ota Heitlinger, trans. Walter Hacker (Vienna: Europa Verlag, 1968), pp. 26063.

TWO Saying Goodbye Saying Goodbye 1. Kyjov is the Czech name of this town, Gaya the German name. These double names come from the period of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, during which many cities bore both a German and a Czech name. Each cultural community used the variant appropriate to it. During the period of German occupation, German names were in official use. After 1945, these place-names reverted to their Czech version. In this translation Czech names have been used throughout, except when official German doc.u.ments are quoted or when German names, especially those of concentration camps, are the more common usage in the English-speaking world. Kyjov is the Czech name of this town, Gaya the German name. These double names come from the period of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, during which many cities bore both a German and a Czech name. Each cultural community used the variant appropriate to it. During the period of German occupation, German names were in official use. After 1945, these place-names reverted to their Czech version. In this translation Czech names have been used throughout, except when official German doc.u.ments are quoted or when German names, especially those of concentration camps, are the more common usage in the English-speaking world.

2. "Sudetenland" was the term used by the German population for those parts of Bohemia and Moravian-Silesia that had been settled by Germans. It does not represent any historical, geographical, or cultural ent.i.ty as such. The name is derived from the Sudeten Mountains, part of the Iser mountain range. The term "Sudeten Germans" first gained political currency with the increasing strength of the Sudetendeutsche Party, and then began to replace the competing term "German Bohemians." "Sudetenland" was the term used by the German population for those parts of Bohemia and Moravian-Silesia that had been settled by Germans. It does not represent any historical, geographical, or cultural ent.i.ty as such. The name is derived from the Sudeten Mountains, part of the Iser mountain range. The term "Sudeten Germans" first gained political currency with the increasing strength of the Sudetendeutsche Party, and then began to replace the competing term "German Bohemians."

3. Hans Safrian, Hans Safrian, Eichmann und seine Gehilfen [Eichmann and His Helpers] Eichmann und seine Gehilfen [Eichmann and His Helpers] (Frankfurt: S. Fischer, 1995), p. 115. (Frankfurt: S. Fischer, 1995), p. 115.

4. Deutsche Politik im "Protektorat Bohmen und Mahren" unter Reinhard Heydrich 19411942 Deutsche Politik im "Protektorat Bohmen und Mahren" unter Reinhard Heydrich 19411942, ed. Miroslav Karn, Jaroslava Milotova, and Margita Karna (Berlin: Metropol, 1997), pp. 137ff.

5. Ibid., p. 150. Ibid., p. 150.

6. Jochen Von Lang, Jochen Von Lang, Das Eichmann-Protokoll. Tonbandaufzeichnungen der israelischen Verh.o.r.e Das Eichmann-Protokoll. Tonbandaufzeichnungen der israelischen Verh.o.r.e (Munich: Ullstein, 2001), pp. 9394. (Munich: Ullstein, 2001), pp. 9394.

THREE Daily Life in the Camp Daily Life in the Camp 1. Miroslav Karn, "Jakob Edelsteins letzte Briefe" ["Jakob Edelstein's Last Letters"], in Miroslav Karn, "Jakob Edelsteins letzte Briefe" ["Jakob Edelstein's Last Letters"], in Theresienstadter Studien und Dok.u.mente 1997 Theresienstadter Studien und Dok.u.mente 1997, pp. 21629.

2. Toma Garrigue Masaryk (18501937), philosopher, president of the Czech Republic, 191835. Toma Garrigue Masaryk (18501937), philosopher, president of the Czech Republic, 191835.

3. "Berichte zum ersten Jahrestag der Theresienstadter Heime in L 417" ["Reports on the First Anniversary of the Theresienstadt Homes in L 417"], in "Berichte zum ersten Jahrestag der Theresienstadter Heime in L 417" ["Reports on the First Anniversary of the Theresienstadt Homes in L 417"], in Theresienstadter Studien und Dok.u.mente 1998 Theresienstadter Studien und Dok.u.mente 1998, ed. Miroslav Karn, Raimund Kemper, and Margita Karna (Prague: Edition Theresienstadter Initiative Academia, 1998), p. 150.

4. Ibid. Ibid.

5. From the testimony of Zeev Shek before the Commission for the Concentration Camp of Terezin, June 29, 1945, in Kurt Jiri Kotouc et al., From the testimony of Zeev Shek before the Commission for the Concentration Camp of Terezin, June 29, 1945, in Kurt Jiri Kotouc et al., We Are Children Just the Same: We Are Children Just the Same: Vedem, Vedem, the Secret Magazine by the Boys of Terezin the Secret Magazine by the Boys of Terezin, trans. R. Elizabeth Novak (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1995).

6. Ibid. Ibid.

7. Typescript of the "Report on the First Anniversary of the Theresienstadt Homes in L 417," by Dr. Rudolf Klein, Jewish Museum in Prague, Terezin Collection, Inv. No. 304/1. Typescript of the "Report on the First Anniversary of the Theresienstadt Homes in L 417," by Dr. Rudolf Klein, Jewish Museum in Prague, Terezin Collection, Inv. No. 304/1.

8. "Theresienstadter Kindertagebucher, Helga Kinsky, Helga Weissova-Hokova, Charlotte Vereova," in Iltis, Ehrmann, and Heitlinger, eds., "Theresienstadter Kindertagebucher, Helga Kinsky, Helga Weissova-Hokova, Charlotte Vereova," in Iltis, Ehrmann, and Heitlinger, eds., Theresienstadt Theresienstadt, pp. 11424.

9. Typescript of a submission to an essay contest held on the anniversary of the Girls' Home L 410, October 18, 1943. The young author's initials are R.G.; Memorial and Archive Beit Terezin, Givat Chaim Ichud, Israel. Typescript of a submission to an essay contest held on the anniversary of the Girls' Home L 410, October 18, 1943. The young author's initials are R.G.; Memorial and Archive Beit Terezin, Givat Chaim Ichud, Israel.

10. "Theresienstadter Kindertagebucher." Taken from the diary of fourteen-year-old ary Weinstein of Prague (she later went by the name Charlotte Vereova). She lived in another room of the Girls' Home. "Theresienstadter Kindertagebucher." Taken from the diary of fourteen-year-old ary Weinstein of Prague (she later went by the name Charlotte Vereova). She lived in another room of the Girls' Home.

11. In addition to this adaptation and staging of the Esther story, there was a more elaborate production for adults directed by Norbert Fried, with music by Karel Reiner. In addition to this adaptation and staging of the Esther story, there was a more elaborate production for adults directed by Norbert Fried, with music by Karel Reiner.

12. "Kurt Singer: Musikkritischer Brief Nr. 4, Verdi's "Kurt Singer: Musikkritischer Brief Nr. 4, Verdi's Requiem" Requiem" ["Kurt Singer: A Music Critic's Letter No. 4, Verdi's ["Kurt Singer: A Music Critic's Letter No. 4, Verdi's Requiem"] Requiem"], in Ulrike Migdal, ed., Und die Musik spielt dazu. Chansons und Satiren aus dem KZ Theresienstadt Und die Musik spielt dazu. Chansons und Satiren aus dem KZ Theresienstadt (Munich: Piper, 1990), pp. 169ff. (Munich: Piper, 1990), pp. 169ff.

13. As we learn from Kurt Singer's report, Tella (Ella Pollak) usually accompanied these productions. He writes: "Presumably Schachter would have speeded up the tempo of the As we learn from Kurt Singer's report, Tella (Ella Pollak) usually accompanied these productions. He writes: "Presumably Schachter would have speeded up the tempo of the Dies Irae Dies Irae if he had had an orchestra instead of a piano (placed in an inconvenient spot, but played excellently by Miss Pollak)." if he had had an orchestra instead of a piano (placed in an inconvenient spot, but played excellently by Miss Pollak)."

14. Rosa Englanderova, "Unsere Aufgabe, unser Weg" ["Our Task, Our Path"], in Rosa Englanderova, "Unsere Aufgabe, unser Weg" ["Our Task, Our Path"], in Theresienstadter Studien und Dok.u.mente 1998 Theresienstadter Studien und Dok.u.mente 1998, pp. 169-71.

15. Egon (Gonda) Redlich, "Die dreifache Aufgabe der Jugendfursorge" ["The Threefold Task of Youth Welfare"], in Egon (Gonda) Redlich, "Die dreifache Aufgabe der Jugendfursorge" ["The Threefold Task of Youth Welfare"], in Theresienstadter Studien und Dok.u.mente 1998 Theresienstadter Studien und Dok.u.mente 1998, pp. 15456.

16. See Kotouc et al., See Kotouc et al., We Are Children Just the Same We Are Children Just the Same.

17. Typescript of a submission to an essay contest held on the anniversary of the Girls' Home L 410, October 18, 1943. Memorial and Archive Beit Terezin, Givat Chaim Ichud, Israel. Typescript of a submission to an essay contest held on the anniversary of the Girls' Home L 410, October 18, 1943. Memorial and Archive Beit Terezin, Givat Chaim Ichud, Israel.

18. William L. s.h.i.+rer, William L. s.h.i.+rer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1960), p. 939. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1960), p. 939.

19. w.i.l.l.y Groag in a conversation with the author in Israel, 1999. w.i.l.l.y Groag died on October 10, 2001. w.i.l.l.y Groag in a conversation with the author in Israel, 1999. w.i.l.l.y Groag died on October 10, 2001.

20. Von Lang, Von Lang, Das Eichmann-Protokoll Das Eichmann-Protokoll, pp. 22122.

21. Ruth Bondy, "Es gab einen Kameraden. Die Kinderzeitung Ruth Bondy, "Es gab einen Kameraden. Die Kinderzeitung Kamerad Kamerad im Ghetto Theresienstadt" ["There Once Was a Comrade. The Children's Periodical im Ghetto Theresienstadt" ["There Once Was a Comrade. The Children's Periodical Kamerad Kamerad in Theresienstadt Ghetto"], in in Theresienstadt Ghetto"], in Theresienstadter Studien und Dok.u.mente 1997 Theresienstadter Studien und Dok.u.mente 1997, pp. 24861.

22. Web site of the House of the Wannsee Conference, Memorial Center: Web site of the House of the Wannsee Conference, Memorial Center: www.ghwk.de/deut/ausstellung2006.htm.

23. Gerhart M. Riegner, "Die Beziehung des Roten Kreuzes zu Theresienstadt in der Endphase des Krieges ["The Relations.h.i.+p Between the Red Cross and Theresienstadt in the Final Phase of the War"], in Gerhart M. Riegner, "Die Beziehung des Roten Kreuzes zu Theresienstadt in der Endphase des Krieges ["The Relations.h.i.+p Between the Red Cross and Theresienstadt in the Final Phase of the War"], in Theresienstadter Studien und Dok.u.mente 1996 Theresienstadter Studien und Dok.u.mente 1996, ed. Miroslav Karn, Raimund Kemper, and Margita Karna (Prague: Edition Theresienstadter Initiative Academia, 1996), pp. 1930.

24. As Bernd Biege reports in his book As Bernd Biege reports in his book Helfer unter Hitler. Das Rote Kreuz im Dritten Reich [Helpers Under Hitler: The Red Cross and the Third Reich] Helfer unter Hitler. Das Rote Kreuz im Dritten Reich [Helpers Under Hitler: The Red Cross and the Third Reich] (Reinbek: Kinder Verlag, 2000), Ernst Robert Grawitz, chief medical officer of the SS, confidant of Heinrich Himmler, and active as well as pa.s.sive partic.i.p.ant in criminal experiments conducted on human beings, was executive president of the German Red Cross from 1937 to 1945. He wrote the rules by which selections were made in concentration camps. Thus, it was Grawitz who ordered the immediate death of 7080 percent of the Jews arriving at these camps-above all the ill, the frail, the aged, and small children. (Reinbek: Kinder Verlag, 2000), Ernst Robert Grawitz, chief medical officer of the SS, confidant of Heinrich Himmler, and active as well as pa.s.sive partic.i.p.ant in criminal experiments conducted on human beings, was executive president of the German Red Cross from 1937 to 1945. He wrote the rules by which selections were made in concentration camps. Thus, it was Grawitz who ordered the immediate death of 7080 percent of the Jews arriving at these camps-above all the ill, the frail, the aged, and small children.

25. Theresienstadter Studien und Dok.u.mente 1994 Theresienstadter Studien und Dok.u.mente 1994, ed. Miroslav Karn, Raimund Kemper, and Margita Karna (Prague: Edition Theresienstadter Initiative Academia, 1994), doc.u.ment section, unpaginated.

26. The The Patria Patria never arrived at its destination. Since the British had refused entry into the harbor, the s.h.i.+p exploded just off the Israeli coast. There were many casualties. Flaka's sister survived and swam ash.o.r.e, but the events surrounding her arrival remained a lifelong trauma. never arrived at its destination. Since the British had refused entry into the harbor, the s.h.i.+p exploded just off the Israeli coast. There were many casualties. Flaka's sister survived and swam ash.o.r.e, but the events surrounding her arrival remained a lifelong trauma.

27. Sokol (Czech for "falcon") was a Czech athletic club founded in 1862 as part of the Czech nationalist movement. After the occupation, it was closed to Jews, and in 1941 the entire organization was declared illegal and dissolved. Sokol (Czech for "falcon") was a Czech athletic club founded in 1862 as part of the Czech nationalist movement. After the occupation, it was closed to Jews, and in 1941 the entire organization was declared illegal and dissolved.

FOUR Island in a Raging Sea Island in a Raging Sea 1. Rudolf Frank, Rudolf Frank, "Brundibar "Brundibar, der Brummbar" ["Brundibar ["Brundibar, the Grumbler"], in Iltis, Ehrmann, and Heitlinger, eds., Theresienstadt Theresienstadt, pp. 27278. After the war, Rudolf Freudenfeld changed his name to Rudolf Frank.

2. Honza Holub played the ice-cream vendor. Unfortunately, the casting information is incomplete. Honza Holub played the ice-cream vendor. Unfortunately, the casting information is incomplete.

3. Kotouc et al., Kotouc et al., We Are Children Just the Same We Are Children Just the Same, pp. 15455.

4. According to Vojtch Blodig, historian for the Theresienstadt Memorial, within thirty-six hours 6,422 people from the Sudeten Barracks and the Bodenbach Barracks were resettled. The vacated rooms were used as a depository for the secret files of the Reich Security Main Office. This inst.i.tution was given the name Berlin Branch Office and was separate from the rest of the camp. According to Vojtch Blodig, historian for the Theresienstadt Memorial, within thirty-six hours 6,422 people from the Sudeten Barracks and the Bodenbach Barracks were resettled. The vacated rooms were used as a depository for the secret files of the Reich Security Main Office. This inst.i.tution was given the name Berlin Branch Office and was separate from the rest of the camp.

5. Manfred Grieger, "Anton Burger-ein osterreichischer Dienstmann" ["Anton Burger-an Austrian Henchman"], in Manfred Grieger, "Anton Burger-ein osterreichischer Dienstmann" ["Anton Burger-an Austrian Henchman"], in Theresienstadter Studien und Dok.u.mente 1995 Theresienstadter Studien und Dok.u.mente 1995, ed. Miroslav Karn, Raimund Kemper, and Margita Karna (Prague: Edition Theresienstadter Initiative Academia, 1995), pp. 24148.

6. Karel Berman, "Erinnerungen von Karel Berman" ["Recollections of Karel Berman"], in Iltis, Ehrmann, and Heitlinger, eds., Karel Berman, "Erinnerungen von Karel Berman" ["Recollections of Karel Berman"], in Iltis, Ehrmann, and Heitlinger, eds., Theresienstadt Theresienstadt, pp. 25458.

7. "Theresienstadter Kindertagebucher," pp. 11424. "Theresienstadter Kindertagebucher," pp. 11424.

8. On the night of August 15, 1943, the SS began liquidating the ghetto of Bialystok, a city in northeast Poland with a high percentage of Jewish inhabitants. (In 1913, 48,000 of the 61,500 residents were Jewish.) From the start of the German occupation on June 27, 1941, to August 1943, approximately 20,000 Jews had already been shot dead or deported and murdered in the death camps. The remaining 30,000 Jews in the Bialystok ghetto were murdered on the spot between August 16 and August 20, 1943, in the course of a futile attempt at resistance, or brought to Auschwitz, Treblinka, Majdanek, or labor camps at Ponoatowa and Blizyn, where they met their deaths. Twelve hundred children, accompanied by 25 adults, were brought to Theresienstadt on a train. The adults were immediately sent on to Auschwitz. On October 5, 1943, the children, plus 35 escorts, left Theresienstadt on Transport Dn/a for the same destination. Immediately upon arrival, both the children and their escorts were murdered in the gas chambers. On the night of August 15, 1943, the SS began liquidating the ghetto of Bialystok, a city in northeast Poland with a high percentage of Jewish inhabitants. (In 1913, 48,000 of the 61,500 residents were Jewish.) From the start of the German occupation on June 27, 1941, to August 1943, approximately 20,000 Jews had already been shot dead or deported and murdered in the death camps. The remaining 30,000 Jews in the Bialystok ghetto were murdered on the spot between August 16 and August 20, 1943, in the course of a futile attempt at resistance, or brought to Auschwitz, Treblinka, Majdanek, or labor camps at Ponoatowa and Blizyn, where they met their deaths. Twelve hundred children, accompanied by 25 adults, were brought to Theresienstadt on a train. The adults were immediately sent on to Auschwitz. On October 5, 1943, the children, plus 35 escorts, left Theresienstadt on Transport Dn/a for the same destination. Immediately upon arrival, both the children and their escorts were murdered in the gas chambers.

9. Ruth Bondy, "Chronik der sich schliessenden Tore" ["Chronicle of the Closing Gates"], which quotes the Ruth Bondy, "Chronik der sich schliessenden Tore" ["Chronicle of the Closing Gates"], which quotes the Judisches Nachrichtenblatt [Jewish Newspaper] Judisches Nachrichtenblatt [Jewish Newspaper] of March 22, 1940, in of March 22, 1940, in Theresienstadter Studien und Dok.u.mente 2000 Theresienstadter Studien und Dok.u.mente 2000, ed. Miroslav Karn, Raimund Kemper, and Margita Karna (Prague: Edition Theresienstadter Initiative Academia, 2000), pp. 86106.

FIVE Light in the Darkness: Light in the Darkness: Brundibar Brundibar 1. Adolf Hoffmeister in the film Adolf Hoffmeister in the film Brundibar-die Kinderoper von Theresienstadt Brundibar-die Kinderoper von Theresienstadt (Munich, 1966). Produced by Cineropa Film; directed by Walter Kruttner. (Munich, 1966). Produced by Cineropa Film; directed by Walter Kruttner.

2. "Berichte zum ersten Jahrestag der Theresienstadter Heime in L 417": Hans Krasa, "Berichte zum ersten Jahrestag der Theresienstadter Heime in L 417": Hans Krasa, "Brundibar," "Brundibar," in in Theresienstadter Studien und Dok.u.mente 1998 Theresienstadter Studien und Dok.u.mente 1998, pp. 17880.

3. Frank, Frank, "Brundibar "Brundibar, der Brummbar," pp. 25458.

4. Typescript of a lecture by Professor Israel Kestenberg, 1943. Original in the Jewish Museum in Prague, Terezin Collection, Inv. No. 304/1. Typescript of a lecture by Professor Israel Kestenberg, 1943. Original in the Jewish Museum in Prague, Terezin Collection, Inv. No. 304/1.

5. "Berichte zum ersten Jahrestag der Theresienstadter Heime in L 417": Friederike Brandeis, "Kinderzeichnen" ["Children's Drawings"], in "Berichte zum ersten Jahrestag der Theresienstadter Heime in L 417": Friederike Brandeis, "Kinderzeichnen" ["Children's Drawings"], in Theresienstadter Theresienstadter Studien und Dok.u.mente 1998 Studien und Dok.u.mente 1998, pp. 17578. Unless otherwise noted, the quotations that follow are also taken from this source.

6. Elena Makarova, Elena Makarova, Friedl d.i.c.ker-Brandeis. Ein Leben fur Kunst und Lehre Friedl d.i.c.ker-Brandeis. Ein Leben fur Kunst und Lehre (Vienna and Munich: Christian Brandstatter Verlag, 2000), p. 21. (Vienna and Munich: Christian Brandstatter Verlag, 2000), p. 21.

7. Edith Kramer in a conversation with the author in Berlin on July 19, 2001. Edith Kramer, who emigrated to New York in 1938 and made a name for herself there as an art teacher and painter, has been especially active in keeping the artistic legacy of Friedl d.i.c.ker-Brandeis alive. In her first book, Edith Kramer in a conversation with the author in Berlin on July 19, 2001. Edith Kramer, who emigrated to New York in 1938 and made a name for herself there as an art teacher and painter, has been especially active in keeping the artistic legacy of Friedl d.i.c.ker-Brandeis alive. In her first book, Art Therapy in a Children's Community Art Therapy in a Children's Community (1958), she formulated the theoretical basis for her work, making her, along with Elinor Ulman and Margareth Naumburg, an American pioneer in this pedagogical discipline. The fact that Edith Kramer dedicated her second book, (1958), she formulated the theoretical basis for her work, making her, along with Elinor Ulman and Margareth Naumburg, an American pioneer in this pedagogical discipline. The fact that Edith Kramer dedicated her second book, Art Therapy for Children Art Therapy for Children, to Friedl d.i.c.ker-Brandeis suggests what a strong influence her teacher had on her own development.

8. Georg Schrom in a lecture given as part of the symposium "Art, Music and Education as Strategies for Survival," Moravian College, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, February 10, 2000. Georg Schrom in a lecture given as part of the symposium "Art, Music and Education as Strategies for Survival," Moravian College, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, February 10, 2000.

9. Makarova, Makarova, Friedl d.i.c.ker-Brandeis Friedl d.i.c.ker-Brandeis, p. 130.

10. Ibid. Ibid.