Friedl – Makarovová Jelena (2017)

The story of this book sounds like a multi-voiced choir. For the literary reconstruction of the character Friedl Dicker-Brandeis, the author uses the memories of students and friends as well as excerpts from preserved correspondence. Friedl studied applied arts in Vienna and at the Bauhaus in Weimar in her youth, focusing on drawing, graphics, painting, sculpture, design, and other fields. In 1934, she fled to Prague. She married her cousin Pavel and followed him to Hronov. After the occupation, the Brandeises lived in increasingly dire material conditions. Painting was Friedl's only salvation. In December 1942, both spouses were called for transport to Terezín. There, Friedl led art education courses for children from orphanages. The method she introduced into the lives of children in the ghetto brought freedom and developed their imagination, which she adopted from her teacher J. Itten. In September 1944, Friedl Dicker-Brandeis requested to be transported from Terezín to Auschwitz. In doing so, she followed many children to whom she tried to pass on her survival guide. She accepted the fate of most of the less fortunate and left with them.