The Book of Dirt

by Bram Presser

  The various emails are extracted verbatim from the originals, edited only for style. One change was made—the name of the museum director.

  All other letters, including those between Františka and Emílie, the postcards sent from Daša to Františka in Chapter 3 of Numbers, correspondence between Jakub and Georg, and the postcard from Shmuel in Birkenau, were written by me. I hope that I’ve been true to their voices.

  MAP OF THERESIENSTADT (TEREZÍN)

  1Hamburg Barracks

  2Hannover Barracks

  3Magdeberg Barracks

  4Dresden Barracks

  5Bodenbach Barracks (The arrival sluice)

  6Hohenelbe Barracks (The hospital)

  7Kavalier Barracks (The mental hospital)

  8Sudeten Barracks

  9Town Square

  10Südstrasse (The road to the Klärenstalt and Bohušovice)

  11Bakery and foodstore

  12The café (during beautification period)

  13Third Bastion

  MAP OF BIRKENAU (AUSCHWITZ II)

  BIa Men’s Camp (until 1943), later Women’s Camp

  BIb Women’s Camp

  BIIbCzech Family Camp (until July 1944)

  BIIdMen’s Camp (after 1943)

  BIIeGypsy Camp (until August 1944), thereafter miscellaneous use as holding/transit camp

  1Selection Ramp (as of 1944)

  2The Medical Block (Block 32 of BIIb)

  3The Children’s Block (Block 31 of BIIb)

  4The Kanada Barracks

  5The Sauna

  6The Incomplete ‘Mexico’ Camp

  7Krema II (gas chamber and crematorium)

  8Krema III (gas chamber and crematorium)

  9Krema IV (gas chamber and crematorium, destroyed in Sonderkommando revolt, 7 October 1944)

  10Krema V (gas chamber and crematorium)

  LIST OF IMAGES

  p.10Jakub Rand, circa 1935. Author’s family collection.

  p.12Wedding of Jan Randa and Daša Roubíčková at Alteneu Synagogue, Prague, 1945. Author’s family collection.

  p.13Jan Randa, Daša Roubíčková and children in Melbourne, 1950. Author’s family collection.

  p.16Daša Roubíčková, 1940. Courtesy of Ludvík Košťál.

  p.17Daša Roubíčková with unknown male companion, 1945. Courtesy of Ludvík Košťál.

  p.19Jan Randa, 1989. Author’s family collection.

  p.35Daša Roubíčková, 1925. Courtesy of Ludvík Košťál.

  p.52School photo of Daša Roubíčková, undated. Courtesy of Ludvík Košťál.

  p.57Jan Randa’s copy of The Trial by Franz Kafka (Penguin, 1953).

  p.63Index card for Jakub Rand, International Tracing Service Master Index. Photo by author.

  p.66Letter from Jugendfürsorge (Youth Welfare Department) requesting exemption of Jakub Rand and his family from transport. Undated but likely early 1943. Reproduced courtesy of the Jewish Museum of Prague.

  p.73Crypt beneath the Saint Cyril and Methodius Church, Prague. Photo by the author.

  p.113Daša Roubíčková (r) with unknown girl, Sudoměřice, 1942. Author’s family collection.

  p.124Wartime class photograph of teachers and pupils at the Jewish School at 3 Jachymova Street. Jakub Rand is pictured on the bottom left. Georg Glanzberg is standing beside him. Courtesy of Frank Bright.

  p.158Letter from Daša Roubíčková to her mother, Františka, undated. Smuggled from Merzdorf Concentration Camp. Courtesy of Ludvík Košťál.

  p.172Arbeitsgruppe ‘M’ Ration Distribution Sheet for September 1943. Reproduced courtesy of the Jewish Museum of Prague.

  p.173Arbeitsgruppe ‘M’ time sheet for October 1943. Reproduced courtesy of the Jewish Museum of Prague.

  p.173Excerpt from Jewish Council Medical Journal reporting that Jakub Rand was transferred to the hospital for an inflammation of the throat, 16 April 1944. Reproduced courtesy of the Jewish Museum of Prague.

  p.174Notice of Termination of Employment for Jakub Rand, 11 May 1944. Reproduced courtesy of the Jewish Museum of Prague.

  p.176Theresienstadt Rail Spur near Bohušovice train station. Photo by the author.

  p.177–78 Photos inside barracks, SS quarters and crawl spaces of Theresienstadt. Photos by the author. With particular thanks to the groundskeeper who let me in to various areas not usually accessible to the public.

  p.180Storeroom inside the Klärenstalt. Photo by the author.

  p.183Birkenau, view from central watchtower overlooking the rail line. Photo by the author.

  p.184Ruins of the Czech Family Camp (Familienlager BIIb), Birkenau. Photo by the author.

  p.189Inside the Czech Family Camp (Familienlager BIIb), Birkenau. Photo by the author.

  p.199Work Transfer Document, 26 August 1943, assigning Jakob Rand to Arbeitsgruppe ‘M’ (the Talmudkommando). Reproduced courtesy of the Jewish Museum of Prague.

  p.205Theresienstadt stamp. From the author’s private collection.

  p.212Talmudkommando Index Card Jc 10008b. Reproduced courtesy of the Jewish Museum of Prague.

  p.283Ludvík Roubíček, 1940. Photo courtesy of Ludvík Košťál.

  p.287Stolperstein outside 13 Biskupcova Street, Žižkov, Prague. Photo by Ludvík Košťál.

  p.288Františka Roubíčková and the author, 1984. Author’s family collection.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  First and foremost, I wish to thank my grandparents, Dr Jan and Daša Randa, and my great grandmother, Františka Roubíčková. I hope that I have done justice to your stories.

  To Frank Bright and Ludvík Košťál: without your help this book would never have been written. Thanks for opening doors I didn’t know existed. Thanks also to Jarka and Petra Košťálová, who were very much a part of this adventure even if they didn’t make it into the book itself.

  Many thanks to Louise Swinn and Zoe Dattner at Sleepers (RIP), Jason Steger at the Age, the Australian Jewish News, the Australian Society of Authors, Magda Veselská and Michal Bušek at the Jewish Museum of Prague, Piotr Supiński at the Auschwitz Museum Archives, Alfons Adam, Andrea Jelínková, Julia Reichstein and the Jewish Holocaust Centre, Martina Stolbova, Michele Nayman (my feet and eyes in Prague after I’d left), Shira Nayman, Will Heyward, Mieke Chew, Emma Schwarcz, Daniel Kovacs, Adrian Elton, Zev and Marg at Sunflower Bookshop (RIP), Oliver Driscoll and the Slow Canoe team, Janine, Noè, Esther and my partners in crime at Melbourne Jewish Book Week, Justine and Michael at Sydney Jewish Writers Festival, Myki and Briony at Vice Magazine, Arnold Zable, Alec Patrić, Kristin Otto, Leah Kaminsky, Lee Koffman, Alex Skovron, Elliot Perlman, Kevin Rabalais, Miles Allinson, Gerard Elson, Howard Goldenberg, Raphael Brous, Steven Amsterdam, Eli Glasman, Daša Drndić, Nir Baram, Mireille Juchau, Antoni Jach and Team Shred (Rocket, Flix, Mads, Marion, Josh, Lachy and Rachel), Tali Lavi, Mark Baker, Dr Leo Kretzenbacher, Dr Timo Lorenz, Vera Hasen, Stens Silavecky, Paul Bartrop, Mark Rubbo, Chris Redfern, Clifford Posner, Josh Gurgiel, Idan Dershowitz, Matthue Roth, Ron and Brett Tait, Rabbi Yaakov Glasman, the always fine Debbie Miller, Tim Byrne, Luke Turbutt, Amy Vuleta, Daniel Carroll, Suze Stein, Kate McFadyen, James Ley and Peter Haskin.

  Much of The Book of Dirt was written in the creative hub that is Glenfern. Thanks to Adriane Howell and the team at Writers Victoria for giving me the space and, particularly, for awarding me the Grace Marion Wilson Fellowship so that I could shut the world out and finally finish the thing! And to Iola and my Glenfern crew (Jim, Janine, Fiona, Bel, Jacinta, Andrew, Erin, Caroline and Amelia). I can think of no one with whom I’d rather share a haunted house.

  Finally, thanks to my families both new and old: Penny, Michael, Alice, Chong, Jess and everyone at Text, my parents, Dan and Eva, my brother Justin, Grandma Ruby and Pop (in loving memory), Randi, Dari, Louie, the Cohens and Bernstein-Cohens, and Tim Hulse. And, of course, Debbie: I wish I could dedicate this book to you a thousand times over but even that would not be enough to express my love and gratitude. So I hope you’ll make do with one at the beginning and one a
t the end.

  Bram Presser was born in Melbourne in 1976. His stories have appeared in Best Australian Stories, Award Winning Australian Writing, The Sleepers Almanac and Higher Arc. The Book of Dirt is his first novel.

  brampresser.com

  Praise for The Book of Dirt

  ‘An immense work of love and anger, a book Bram Presser was born to write.’

  JOAN LONDON

  ‘Working in the wake of writers like Modiano and Safran Foer, Presser brilliantly shows how fresh facts can derail old truths, how fiction can amplify memory. A smart and tender meditation on who we become when we attempt to survive survival.’

  MIREILLE JUCHAU

  ‘The Book of Dirt is a grandson’s tender act of devotion, the product of a quest to rescue family voices from the silence, to bear witness, drawing on legend, journey and history, and shaped by extraordinary storytelling.’

  ARNOLD ZABLE

  ‘A beautiful literary mind.’

  A.S. PATRIĆ

  ‘In The Book of Dirt the fractured lines of memory create a gripping story of survival and love.’

  LEAH KAMINSKY

  ‘An impressive and captivating story of remembrance, a journey into the past for the sake of deciphering our present.’

  DAŠA DRNDIĆ

  textpublishing.com.au

  The Text Publishing Company

  Swann House

  22 William Street

  Melbourne Victoria 3000

  Australia

  Copyright © Bram Presser 2017

  The moral rights of the author have been asserted.

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright above, no part of this publication shall be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.

  Published by The Text Publishing Company 2017

  Cover design by W. H. Chong

  Page design by Jessica Horrocks

  Maps by Simon Barnard

  Typeset by J&M Typesetting

  The publishers gratefully acknowledge permission from Penguin Random House UK to reproduce the front cover image of The Trial by Franz Kafka (1953) on p.61

  National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry

  Creator: Presser, Bram, author.

  Title: The book of dirt / by Bram Presser.

  ISBN: 9781925240269 (paperback)

  ISBN: 9781922253071 (ebook)

  Subjects: Jews—Europe—Biography—Fiction.

  Jewish families—Biography—Fiction.

  Holocaust survivors—Europe—Biography—Fiction.

  Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)—Fiction.

  Biographical fiction.