Frau Friedl in Real Life

I love reading and writing historical fiction because I have the chance to meet characters

who are modeled after real people. While researching Terezin, the “model ghetto” that held

many of the Jews from Prague, I stumbled upon the real person, Friedl Dicker-Brandeis. I’m

going to have to trust my blog readers when I say this next thing: I dream of writing an entire

novel about Frau Friedl (as she introduces herself to Hanna in my book). Don’t go stealing my

idea!

Frau Friedl deserves so much more than the few chapters in which she appears in

Diamonds in Auschwitz. Even a book starring just her would not be enough to commemorate the

impact she had on the lives of the children in Terezin and the mark she insisted they make on

the world.

From 1942 – 1944, 15,000 children were held in Terezin. By the end of the war, less than

100 survived. Let me say that again in case you think I mistyped my zeros. 15,000 children were

held in Terezin; fewer than 100 survived.

That’s almost 14,900 innocent lives cut short and lost to the war machine of WWII.

Frau Friedl, an artist, was sent to Terezin in 1942. Instead of filling her suitcase with

essentials or memories from her life thus far, she filled it with every type of paper scrap she

could find – receipts, torn pages, used wrapping paper. When she arrived in the ghetto, she

started an art class for the children. Unlike many of the artists in Terezin who were afraid to

draw the true conditions and afraid to sign their name to anything incriminating, Frau Friedl

encouraged the children to draw what they saw, what they felt, what they dreamed of. And she

had them sign their name to every piece of art.

Four years later, when Frau Friedl received her notice to be deployed, she smuggled

over 4,500 drawings in two suitcases out of the camp. They remained safe until the war ended.

Those drawings can be seen in exhibits around the world, including the Jewish Museum in

Prague and the Holocaust Memorial Museum in DC. Sadly, Frau Friedl is not mentioned in the

exhibit in Washington.

Frau Friedl was murdered in Auschwitz in October 1944, but because of her, the names

of thousands of children live on forever.