Her name is Friedl Dicker-Brandeis, she was an artist formally trained at Bauhaus. She was sent to Theresienstadt in 1942 bringing only art supplies in her one bag allowance. Theresienstadt was a way station for Nazi extermination camps. 15,000 children were interred there - only 150 survived.
Friedl secretly taught the children art at night to help them cope with their situation. She hid their work in two cases that were found later at Theresienstadt. 4,500 pieces done by the children.
Friedl Dicker-Brandeis was murdered on October 9, 1944 at Auschwitz by the Nazis.
And what I want to know is why we haven't known about her prior? You see these amazing women are in our history. They are there...but only slowly rising to the surface and we have to dig to find them. And when we do; they don't get much attention. Why?
If you don't think that Friedl knew she was going to die; I'd say you are wrong. She knew...and she took what mattered with her. Art has no bounds. It is a way of being that transcends time itself. She took that with her and gave it to the children at Theresienstadt. And because of her there are four thousand five hundred pieces of art that remain from the children that were there.
Let's put her into the history books. Let's teach by her example. Let what remains be a voice not to forget a horrific past. And let's not have her death and the deaths of all of those children be meaningless.
Much peace,
K