The Girls of Room 28

by Hannelore Brenner

  7. “Prominent” people were those designated as such by the SS or the Council of Elders. They were given so-called privileged quarters and enjoyed some protection from being transported. Ultimately, however, such status was of use to only a very few. In the end, they were treated just like all other prisoners and were put on transport lists.

  8. Jindřich Flusser, “Lebwohl, Theresienstadt” [“Farewell, Theresienstadt”], in Iltis, Ehrmann, and Heitlinger, eds., Theresienstadt, pp. 302–6. The number given for the town’s population at its highest level is incorrect. Up to fifty-eight thousand people actually lived in Theresienstadt.

  9. “Theresienstädter Kindertagebücher,” pp. 114–24.

  10. Gonda Redlich’s diary, quoted by Vojtěch Blodig in his Ammerkungen zu Maurice Roussels Bericht, Theresienstädter Studien und Dokumente 1996, p. 304 n. 16.

  11. Rumors (bonkes) about a visit by a delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross began circulating with the first orders for beautification in December 1943, but no one knew when it would occur. Himmler officially agreed to an inspection of the Theresienstadt Ghetto for the Elderly in May 1944. A letter dated May 18, 1944, sent by the Reich Security Main Office to Colonel Niehaus of the German Red Cross, said that Himmler “had approved an inspection of the Theresienstadt ghetto and of a Jewish labor camp by you and a representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross. Also taking part in the inspection will be representatives of Denmark and Sweden. The date for this inspection is sometime in early June 1944.” Quoted in Theresienstadt Studien und Dokumente 1994, document section. Historians concur that the term “Jewish labor camp” referred to the family camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, which itself was planned as part of a Nazi propaganda campaign.

  12. See H. G. Adler, Theresienstadt 1941–1945, Das Antlitz einer Zwangsgemeinschaft, Geschichte, Soziologie, Psychologie (Tübingen: J. C. Mohr, 1956).

  13. Of note in this context is Cara De Silva’s In Memory’s Kitchen: A Legacy from the Women of Terezin (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006), a collection of traditional Bohemian, Moravian, Austrian, and German recipes that were exchanged among the women of Theresienstadt to satisfy their hunger, at least in their fantasies. They had neither the ingredients nor a place to cook or bake the foods in these recipes.

  14. Heinrich Taussig, born in 1923; Bernhard Kaff, born in 1905 in Brno. Neither survived. Viktor Ullmann also wrote about a Beethoven concert given by Bernard Kaff. See “Kritik Nr. 19” in Ullmann, 26 Kritiken, p. 76.

  15. “Theresienstädter Kindertagbücher,” pp. 114–24.

  16. Ibid.

  17. Eva Herrmannová in an interview with the author in Prague, 1998.

  18. See Herbert Thomas Mandl, Die Wette des Philosophen. Der Anfang des definitively Todes (Munich: Boer Verlag, 1996), p. 106.

  19. Franěk, “Brundibár, der Brummbär.”

  20. Maurice Rossel’s report and other documents were first published in their entirety in Theresienstádter Studien und Dokumente 1996, pp. 284–301, with an introduction by Miroslav Kárný, pp. 276–82, and detailed notes by Vojtěch Blodig, pp. 302–20. Unless otherwise noted, all other quotations by Maurice Rossel are taken from this report.

  21. Claude Lanzmann in a conversation with Maurice Rossel, published in Theresienstädter Studien und Dokumente 2000, pp. 168–91. Lanzmann conducted this conversation for his documentary film Shoah (1985), but it was not used in the film. It was first published in Un vivant qui passe Auschwitz, Theresienstadt 1943–1944 (Paris: Editions Mille et une nuits/Arte Editions, 1997).

  22. The deportees’ baggage was confiscated by the SS at the “sluice” and then plundered. What was left landed in the Kleiderkammer; it was very strictly inventoried and then distributed among the prisoners and/or sold in shops for ghetto currency.

  23. Karel Kursawe, born in 1892; member of the SS camp high command and director of camp agriculture.

  24. Eva Herrmannová in an interview with the author in Prague, 1998.

  25. From the program of a 1995 production of Brundibár by Jeunesses Musicales Deutschland; premiered at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Berlin.

  26. Käthe Starke-Goldschmidt, “Die Zentralbücherei des Ghettos Theresienstadt” [“The Central Library of the Theresienstadt Ghetto”], in Iltis, Ehrmann, and Heitlinger, eds., Theresienstadt, pp. 185ff.

  27. Hans Höfer, “Der Film über Theresienstadt” [“The Film About Theresienstadt”], in Iltis, Ehrmann, and Heitlinger, eds., Theresienstadt, pp. 194ff.

  28. Eva Herrmannová in an interview with the author in Prague, 1998.

  SEVEN Ghetto Tears

  1. See Ullmann, “Kritik Nr. 16,” in 26 Kritiken.

  2. Ullmann, “Kritik Nr. 24,” in 26 Kritiken.

  3. See Zdenka Fantlová, My Lucky Star (New York: Herodias, 2001).

  4. Paul Kling (1928–2005) in conversations with the author in New York and Berlin, 1997 and 1998.

  5. Leo Haas, “Die Affäre der Theresienstädter Maler” [“The Theresienstadt Painters’ Affair”], in Iltis, Ehrmann, and Heitlinger, eds., Theresienstadt, pp. 170ff.

  6. Mitteilungen der Jüdischen Selbstverwaltung [Communications of the Jewish Self-Administration], no. 45, September 17, 1944, taken from the literary estate of Otto Pollak; also quoted in Otto Pollak’s diary entry of Saturday, September 16, 1944.

  7. Miroslav Kárný, “Die Theresienstädter Herbstransporte 1944” [“The Theresienstadt Transports in the Fall of 1944”], in Theresienstädter Studien und Dokumente 1995, pp. 7–37.

  8. Ibid. Kárný’s essay provides solid evidence that Himmler’s chief motive in ordering these transports was to weaken resistance in Theresienstadt, to eliminate all potential for resistance, and to counter what he feared most, an uprising. At the same time he could then carry on unhindered with his camouflage of Theresienstadt and garner any political capital such a deception might yield.

  9. Felix Weiss was a cousin of Otto Pollak and a member of the fire department in Theresienstadt. He died in January 1945 in a concentration camp in Bavaria.

  10. Kárný, “Theresienstädter Herbstransporte 1944,” pp. 7–37.

  11. Eva Herrmannová in an interview with the author in Prague, 1998.

  12. Mica was important for the manufacture of munitions. It had to be splintered into very thin pieces and weighed, both processes demanding good light and exceptional dexterity. After September 1944, more than a thousand women were put to work fracturing mica.

  EIGHT Liberation

  1. Horst Cohn, a resident of Israel, in a conversation with the author in Schwerin, Germany, January 2001.

  2. Paul (Sandfort) Aron, Ben: The Alien Bird, trans. Paul Aron and Alex Auswaks (Jerusalem: Gefen Books, 1999), p. 295.

  3. Irena Lauscherová, “Die Kinder von Theresienstadt” [“The Children of Theresienstadt”], in Iltis, Ehrmann, and Heitlinger, eds., Theresienstadt, p. 111.

  4. Among the dead was the Viennese pianist Renée Gärtner-Geiringer (1908–1945). Flaška’s sister Lizzi, who was on the same train, tripped over the dead body of Gärtner-Geiringer as she left the cattle car after the bombardment.

  5. In their attempt to save Hungarian Jews, Rudolf Kastner and Joel Brand were involved in controversial dealings with the Nazis. On April 5, 1944, when Kastner and Brand first met with Dieter Wisliceny, who was part of Eichmann’s Section IV B 4, Wisliceny demanded $2 million in exchange for the lives of 800,000 Hungarian Jews. After the first partial payment, a rescue operation was set in motion for a selected group of 1,700 Jews, who, after extended incarceration at Bergen-Belsen until late 1944, finally did make it to Switzerland. As part of those April negotiations, Eichmann offered Joel Brand another deal: the release of one million Jews in exchange for ten thousand trucks and other goods from the West. This offer of “blood for goods,” as it was called, was rejected by the Allies. Kastner nevertheless continued negotiations, which the Allies supported for tactical reasons. Accused of betraying Jews and collaborating with the Nazis, Kastner was later tried in
Israel in 1954–55. Kastner’s legal appeal was still pending when he was shot and killed on the street by nationalist extremists in Israel on March 15, 1957. Kastner’s good name has now largely been restored. Those whom he saved have erected a monument in his honor.

  6. Der Kastner-Bericht über Eichmanns Menschenhandel in Ungarn [The Kastner Report Concerning Eichmanns Traffic in Human Beings in Hungary] (Munich: Kindler, 1961), pp. 323–27.

  7. Kotouc et al., We Are Children Just the Same, pp. 72–73. Eva Ginz is the sister of Petr Ginz, the editor of Vedem.

  8. Alice Ehrmann, “Ein Theresienstädter Tagebuch, October 18, 1944-May 19, 1945” [“A Theresienstadt Diary”], in Theresienstädter Studien und Dokumente 1994, pp. 171–205. The author was born on May 5, 1927, and arrived in Theresienstadt on July 13, 1943. There she became friends with Zeev Shek, a committed Zionist leader. In 1947 they married, and in 1948 she followed him to Palestine. Alisah Shek is one of the cofounders of the archives and memorial Beit Terezin, at Givat Chaim Ichud, Israel, where she lived until her death in 2007.

  9. Theresienstädter Studien und Dokumente 1995, pp. 306–24. Erich Kessler was born on June 14, 1912. He lived in Prague until he was deported to Theresienstadt on February 9, 1945, along with other Jews living in (as the Nazis called it) a Mischehe (mixed marriage).

  10. According to information provided by Karl-Heinz Schultz, chairman of the Friends of the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial, “Papa” was a customs agent who had been reassigned to guard prisoners on September 13, 1944. He was killed in an air raid on Hamburg-Tiefstack.

  11. Erich Kessler in Theresienstädter Studien und Dokumente 1995, pp. 306–24.

  12. Ibid.

  EPILOGUE

  1. Hanka Brady’s story is told in the book Hana’s Suitcase, by Karen Levine (Morton Grove, Ill.: Albert Whitman & Co., 2007).

  2. Přemysl Pitter (1895–1976) was a Christian humanist who devoted his life to social work with children. Pavel Kohn has written a book in his honor: Schlösser der Hoffnung. Die geretteten Kinder des Přemysl Pitter [Castles of Hope: The Rescued Children of Přemysl Pitter] (Munich: Langen Müller, 2001).

  3. Eugen Kolb (1898–1959) was an art critic, art historian, and journalist; from 1952 to 1959 he served as director of the Helena Rubenstein Museum in Tel Aviv.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  The following three publications were especially rich sources of information and inspiration:

  Theresienstadt. Ed. Rudolf Iltis, František Ehrmann, and Ota Heitlinger. Trans. Walter Hacker. Vienna: Europa Verlag, 1968.

  Theresienstädter Studien und Dokumente. Ed. Miroslav Kárný, Raimund Kemper, and Margita Kárná. Prague: Edition Theresienstädter Initiative Academia, annual volumes starting 1994.

  Kotouc, Kurt Jiri, et al. We Are Children Just the Same: Vedem, the Secret Magazine by the Boys of Terezin. Trans. R. Elizabeth Novak. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1995.

  Historical Literature on Theresienstadt

  Adler, H. G. Theresienstadt 1941–1945, Das Antlitz einer Zwangsgemeinschaft. Geschichte, Soziologie, Psychologie. Tübingen: J. C. Mohr, 1956.

  Die verheimlichte Wahrheit. Theresienstädter Dokumente. Tübingen: J. C. Mohr, 1958.

  Blodig, Vojtěch. “The Genocide of the Czech Jews in World War II and the Terezín Ghetto.” In Art, Music and Education as Strategies for Survival: Theresienstadt 1941–1945, ed. Anne D. Dutlinger, pp. 144–61. New York: Herodias, 2001.

  “Die letzte Phase der Entwicklung des Ghettos Theresienstadt.” In Theresienstadt in der Endlösung der Judenfrage, ed. Miroslav Kárný, Vojtěch Blodig, and Margita Kárná, pp. 267–78. Prague: Panorama, 1992.

  “Terezín in the ‘Final Solution of the Jewish Question.’ ” In The Holocaust Phenomenon: Conference Report of the International Scientific Conference, pp. 87–91. Prague, 2000.

  Bondy, Ruth. “Elder of the Jews”: Jakob Edelstein of Theresienstadt. New York: Grove Press, 1989.

  Chládková, Ludmilla. Das Ghetto Theresienstadt. Terezín: Verlag Nase Vojsko, 1991.

  De Silva, Cara. In Memory’s Kitchen: A Legacy from the Women of Terezin. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006.

  Drori, Hana, and Jehuda Huppert. Theresienstadt. Ein Wegweiser. Prague: Vitalis, 1999.

  Karas, Joža. Music in Terezin, 1941–1945. New York: Beaufort Books, 1985.

  Die Kleine Festung Theresienstadt, 1940–1945. Exhibition catalogue. Prague: Památník Terezín, 1996.

  Kuna, Milan. Musik an der Grenze des Lebens. Frankfurt: Zweitausendeins, 1993.

  Migdal, Ulrike, ed. Und die Musik spielt dazu. Chansons und Satiren aus dem KZ Theresienstadt. Munich: Piper, 1990.

  Schwertfeger, Ruth. Women of Theresienstadt: Voices from a Concentration Camp. New York: Berg, 1989.

  Ullmann, Viktor. 26 Kritiken über musikalische Veranstaltungen in Theresienstadt. Ed. Ingo Schultz. Hamburg: Bockel Verlag, 1996.

  Autobiographical Literature on Theresienstadt

  Aron, Paul (Sandfort). Ben: The Alien Bird. Trans. Paul Aron and Alex Auswaks Jerusalem: Gefen Books, 1999.

  Bernstein, Elsa. Das Leben als Drama: Erinnerungen an Theresienstadt. Dortmund: Edition Ebersbach, 1999.

  Bor, Josef. The Terezin Requiem. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1963.

  Elias, Ruth. Die Hoffnung erhielt mich am Leben. Munich: Piper Verlag, 1988.

  Fantlová, Zdenka. My Lucky Star. New York: Herodias, 2001.

  Kantor, Alfred. The Book of Alfred Kantor. New York: Schocken Books, 1987.

  Klüger, Ruth. Still Alive: A Holocaust Girlhood Remembered. New York: Feminist Press, 2003.

  Koenig, Ernest. Im Vorhof der Vernichtung. Als Zwangsarbeiter in den Außenlagern von Auschwitz. Frankfurt: S. Fischer, 2000.

  Mandl, Herbert Thomas. Durst, Musik, Geheime Dienste. Munich: Boer Verlag, 1995.

  Die Wette des Philosophen. Der Anfang des definitiven Todes. Munich: Boer Verlag, 1996.

  Meyer, Alwin. Die Kinder von Auschwitz. Göttingen: Lamuv Verlag, 1990.

  Oppenhejm, Mélanie. Theresienstadt: Survival in Hell. Trans. Dina Ullendorff. London: Menard Press, 2001.

  Ross, Carlo. Im Vorhof der Hölle. Munich: dtv, 1994.

  Salus, Grete. Niemand, nichts—Ein Jude. Darmstadt: Darmstádter Blätter, 1981.

  Scheuer, Lisa. Vom Tode, der nicht stattfand. Reinbek: Shaker Verlag, 1998.

  Spitzer, Federica, and Ruth Weisz. Theresienstadt. Aufzeichnungen von Federica Spitzer und Ruth Weisz. Ed. Wolfgang Benz. Berlin: Metropol, 1997.

  Troller, Norbert. Theresienstadt: Hitler’s Gift to the Jews. Trans. Susan E. Cerynyak-Spatz. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991.

  Utitz, Emil. Psychologie des Lebens im Konzentrationslager Theresienstadt. Vienna: Verlag A. Sexl, 1948.

  Vrba, Rudolf. Als Kanada in Auschwitz lag. Meine Flucht aus dem Vernichtungslager. Munich: Piper, 1999.

  Children’s Painting in Theresienstadt

  Dutlinger, Anne D., ed. Art, Music and Education as Strategies for Survival. New York: Herodias, 2000.

  Makarova, Elena. Friedl Dicker-Brandeis. Ein Leben für Kunst und Lehre. Vienna and Munich: Christian Brandstätter Verlag, 2000.

  Volkavkova, Hana. I Never Saw Another Butterfly. New York: Schocken Books, 1994.

  Vom Bauhaus nach Terezin. Friedl Dicker-Brandeis und die Kinderzeichnungen aus dem Ghetto-Lager Theresienstadt. Exhibition catalogue. Frankfurt: Das Jüdische Museum, 1991.

  Weissová, Helga. Zeichne, was Du siehst. Zeichnungen eines Kindes aus Theresienstadt. Göttingen: Wallstein, 1998.

  General Literature on the Holcaust

  Aly, Götz, and Susanne Heim. Vordenker der Vernichtung. Frankfurt: S. Fischer, 1993.

  Benz, Wolfgang. Der Holocaust. Munich: C. H. Beck, 1997.

  Berkley, George E. Vienna and Its Jews: The Tragedy of Success, 1880s-1980s. Lanham, Md.: Madison Books, 1988.

  Biege, Bernd. Helfer unter Hitler. Das Rote Kreuz im Dritten Reich. Reinbek: Kindler Verlag, 2000.

  Deutsche Politik im “Protektorat B�
�hmen und Mähren” unter Reinhard Heydrich 1941–1942. Ed. Miroslav Kárný, Jaroslava Milotová, and Margita Kárná. Berlin: Metropol, 1997.

  Deutsche und Tschechen. Ed. Walter Koschmal, Marek Nekula, and Joachim Rogall. Munich: C. H. Beck, 2001.

  Encyclopedia of the Holocaust. Ed. Israel Gutman. 4 vols. New York: Macmillan, 1995.

  Friedrich, Otto. The Kingdom of Auschwitz. New York: HarperCollins, 1994.

  Gilbert, Martin. Auschwitz and the Allies. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1981.

  Hilberg, Raul. The Destruction of the European Jews. 3rd ed. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2003.

  Perpetrators Victims Bystanders: The Jewish Catastrophe, 1933–1945. New York: HarperCollins, 1993.

  Jüdische Schicksale. Berichte von Verfolgten. Vienna: Dokumentationsarchiv des österreichischen Widerstandes, 1992.

  Kárný, Miroslav. “Nisko in der Geschichte der Endlösung.” Judaica Bohemia 3, no. 2 (1987): 69–84.

  Longerich, Peter. Die Wannsee-Konferenz vom 20. Januar 1942, Planung und Beginn des Genozids an den europäischen Juden, Gedenk und Bildungsstätte Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz. Berlin: Edition Hentrich, 1998.

  Müller-Tupath, Karla. Verschollen in Deutschland. Das heimliche Leben des Anton Burger, Lagerkommandant von Theresienstadt. Hamburg: Konkret Literatur Verlag, 1994.

  Ondrichova, Lucie. Fredy Hirsch. Eine jüdische Biographie 1916–1944. Constance: Hartung-Gorre-Verlag, 2000.

  Safrian, Hans. Eichmann und seine Gehilfen. Frankfurt: S. Fischer, 1995.

  Shirer, William L. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1960.

  Von Lang, Jochen. Das Eichmann-Protokoll. Tonbandaufzeichnungen der israelischen Verhöre. Munich: Ullstein, 2001.

  Wlaschek, Rudolf M. Juden in Böhmen. Beiträge zur Geschichte des europäischen Judentums im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert Munich: Oldenbourg, 1997.