Deceptive tragedy overcome by determination

By: JournalNow Staff | Cindy Bunker
Published: January 30, 2010

THE GIRLS OF ROOM 28. By Hannelore Brenner. Schocken Books. 322 pages. $26.

There are stars that twinkle in the sky
Although they burned out long ago
And people who bring light to the world
Although they are no longer with us
Their light shines especially bright
In the darkness of night
They show the way for us all

— Hannah Senesh (1921-1944)

In the fall of the year 2000, a group of 10 women in their 70s joyfully reunited at Spindlermuhle in the Czech Republic.

This reunion was not one of a privileged girls' school, and these women were far from the privileged class one might expect to attend such a school reunion. Between the years of 1942 and 1944, when these Jewish girls were 12 to 14 years of age, they were all residents of Room 28 of the Girls' Home in the Theresienstadt ghetto of Nazi-controlled Germany.

Here, at any given time, 30 girls occupied a space of about 325 square feet, sharing their dreams and thoughts in autograph albums and journals. Only a small number of these journals survived the war; a few of the enduring pages are shared in The Girls of Room 28. The drawings and uncomplicated musings could be found in any child's journal. The tragedy of these particular entries, however, is realized when the entrants' names are then found on the pages memorializing the residents of Room 28 who did not survive the war.

Theresienstadt, during the war, was billed to the outside world as "The town that Hitler gave the Jews." It was presented to the International Red Cross and other concerned entities as proof that nothing untoward was happening to the Jews in Germany.

In reality, however, this was a façade. Its people were starving, overcrowded, infested with bugs and always fearful under heavy guard. The cafés and retail shops shown to visitors were not for use by the residents, and most of the residents were put on lockdown when visitors were present.

Actually, Theresienstadt was the initial holding area for Jewish people after they were expelled from their hometowns. Most were soon put on a "transport" and moved on to Auschwitz or another death camp.
This book is an insider's view of the dangerous and insidious deception to the outside world that allowed the death camps to continue their operations.

As disturbing as this historical account is, though, it is also a story of unrelenting hope. The adults — gifted teachers, artists, writers and others — in the Theresienstadt camp dedicated themselves to providing the children with as humane and cultured an environment as possible, given their unimaginable situation. The adults steadfastly educated and prepared the girls for the world they would re-enter at the war's end, even as it became increasingly evident that they themselves would not survive the war.
The mere fact that these women are alive to make the reunion trip year after year is no small miracle. They come with a determination forged many years ago under trial to "rescue from oblivion those who had lost their lives in the German camps."
The unanswerable question they all ask themselves is, "What would have become of them? Of Lenka, who wrote such wonderful poems? Of Fiska, who came up with witty sketches and loved the stage? Of Helena, with her talent for drawing and painting? Of Maria, with her beautiful voice?"
This book is not an easy read. The many unfamiliar names and places make the edition difficult to follow. Some individuals are introduced only to disappear for a large portion of the reading and reappear again toward the end. Each of the 10 women has a valid story to tell, but so many contributors do make the unified story more complicated. Nonetheless, Hannelore Brenner does a fine job of weaving their individual stories together to ensure that those friends who died are not forgotten.

Cindy Bunker is a free-lance writer who lives in Lexington.