Fireflies in the Dark by Susan Goldman Rubin

Fireflies in the Dark tells the story of Friedl Dicker-Brandeis, an artist and a teacher who worked with children using art. When Hitler came to power and set up a dictatorship, he began to implement many policies to rid Germany of its Jewish population. In 1939, Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia. Friedl lived in Prague at this time. Concerned for her well being, given the Nazi policies towards Jews, friends had arranged for Friedl to emigrate to Palestine, the new Jewish state, but she refused to leave her friends. Eventually, Friedl, like most of the Jews in Czechoslovakia, was sent to a concentration camp in 1942. Friedl, her husband Pavel Brandeis were sent to a camp called Terezin or better known as Theresiendstadt.


When Friedl was packing to leave for Terezin she took many art supplies including paint, brushes and paper. Her motivation for doing so were the children that she knew would be in the camp. Friedl felt that art would be able to help many of the children in the camp. Friedl and her husband, along with all the Jewish population of her town and many others had to lug their suitcases almost two miles into Terezin which was once a Czech army fortress. All of the town's non-Jewish inhabitants were ordered to leave and it was turned into a camp.

At the camp the Nazi guards took away anything of value that the Jewish people had brought with them but Friedl's art supplies were left untouched. Families were separated so Friedl lived in a separate barrack from Pavel. She was sent to live with the children in a "home" called L410 which was for girls. Conditions in L410 were terrible as it was cramped and cold. Friedl managed to create a small area away from the packed barrack that allowed children some space.

In the camp, Friedl and other adults taught the children in secret as they were not allowed to attend school but only to study music and crafts. Friedl's effort in this endeavour was to give art lessons to any child who wished to learn. It was through art that Friedl helped the children to express what they were feeling, to escape the horrific situation they had been placed into and to retain some dignity during a time when hope was lost. People including the children did not receive enough food, had to cope with bedbugs and lice, and were often sick. In addition was the ever present fear of being named to the transports which meant being sent east to a death camp.

In 1943 Friedl and the other tutors at Terezin had the children put on a production of a Czech fairy tale called Fireflies. With Friedl's help they created the costumes for the musical. On October 6, 1944, Friedl along with thirty of her students, was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau were she was murdered.

At the end of the war when Terezin was liberated by the Russians, two suitcases containing five thousand children's drawings were found in the attic of L410. The suitcases were brought to Prague by Willi Groag who had been the head tutor at L410. Nothing was done about them until ten years after their discovery when they were finally exhibited. Today these drawings are now catalogued and preserved. Both the Jewish Museum in Prague and Beit Theresienstadt in Israel retain the drawings.

Discussion

Fireflies in the Dark is about the heroic efforts of Austrian-Jewish artist and educator Friedl Dicker to help Jewish children imprisoned in the concentration camp, Theresiendstadt.

Friedl Dicker was born in Vienna in 1898 to Simon and Karolina Dicker. Her father worked as an assistant in a stationary shop. Friedl's mother died when she was only four-years-old.  She attended drawing classes at the School of Art and Crafts where she took classes given by Professor Franz Cizek. In 1916, Friedl studied in Johannes Itten's private school. There she met Franz Singer and Anny Wettitz both of whom would be come good friends. Friedl also became interested in music during this time and studied harmony at Arnold Schoenberg's studio. 

Friedl studied at the Weimar Bauhaus school from 1919 to 1923. She moved there after Itten closed his school and moved to take up a teaching position at the Bauhaus. She was able to attend lectures by Paul Klee in 1921. These lectures opened Friedl to new ideas about children and art. This would lead to Friedl art courses in 1931 to kindergarten teachers, teaching them to use a child's unique personality and artistic abilities when creating art. 

Friedl fled to Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1934 after she was briefly imprisoned for being involved in Communist activities. There she met and married Pavel Brandeis, her cousin who worked as an accountant.  In Prague, Friedl worked teaching the children of political emigre's from Germany applying the concepts she had learned from Johannes Itten. She was also politically involved while living in Prague and at this time met Hilde Kothny who was to become a dear friend.

Although Friedl was able to obtain a visa for Palestine in 1938, she refused to leave and instead she and Pavel moved to Hronov where she worked as a textile designer. Despite the worsening situation in Czechoslovakia, Friedl painted but was not able to exhibit. In 1942, Friedl and Pavel were deported to Terezin in December of 1942. There she taught drawing to the imprisoned children, held exhibitions of their artwork and even did the costuming and sets for childrens' plays. She advocated for children being allowed to express their feelings through art rather than following a prescribed art format. Friedl was eventually deported to Auschwitz along with some of her young pupils in October of 1944 and gassed. Eventually over five thousand drawings made by the children of Terezin were discovered and now are exhibited in the Jewish Museum in Prague.

Fireflies in the Dark captures the essence of Friedl's work with the children of Terezin as well as their experience in the concentration camp, with the many reproductions of their artwork. For example, A Train Travelling Through a Night Landscape by Alice Guttamanova who died in September, 1943 effectively portrays "a train hurtling the night, carrying the prisoners into the unknown." with its dark bold lines amid a full moon. Other paintings such as Flowers and Butterflies by Margit Koretzova display beautiful colours that suggest an escape to a happier more peaceful realm. The overarching theme is how art helped these young children deal with the horrors of war and the struggle to live and even to die.

The author, Susan Goldman Rubin was able to meet some of the survivors of Terezin including Eva Stichova-Beldova, Helga Weissova-Hoskova, Kurt Jiri Kotouc and Doris Grozdanovicova. She also had access to the unpublished diaries written by some of the prisoners. All of this plus the help of numerous others contributed to a book which passes on the story of the children of Terezin to a new generation of young people.

Book Details:
Fireflies in the Dark by Susan Goldman Rubin
New York: Holiday House     2000
48 pp.