My new book, “The Lost Wife” was inspired by several people whose stories are woven into the novel.

Lenka, one of the main characters in my novel, is partly inspired by one of the actual historical characters mentioned in the book, Dina Gottliebova, who studied art in Prague and later worked in the Lautscher department in Terezin painting postcard scenes for a short time before she was deported to Auschwitz. She emigrated to the United States after the camps were liberated, and died in California in 2009. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. proved to be invaluable in providing an oral testimony of Dina Gottliebova’s experiences, both working in Terezin and her description of the mural of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” she had created for the Czech Children’s barrack in Auschwitz. The mural would serve as a comfort to the children, and also helped to save Dina’s life. After she had completed it, an SS guard informed Menegle of her artistic talent. Mengele then promised to spare her and her mother’s life if she painted life portraits of the men and women he used in his horrific medical experiments.

Several other characters who appear in the book were also actual historical figures. Friedl Dicker Brandeis arrived in Terezin in December 1942, and almost immediately began implementing art classes for the children there. In September 1944, upon hearing that her husband, Pavel Brandeis, was being transported East, she volunteered to follow him on the next transport there. She perished shortly after her arrival in Auschwitz. Prior to her transport, however, she gave two suitcases with 4,500 drawings to Rosa Englander, the chief tutor of the Young Girls’ home in Terezin. At the end of the war, Willy Groag, the director of the Girl’s home was entrusted with those suitcases, and hand carried them to the Jewish Community in Prague. Of the 660 children who created art with Friedl Dicker Brandeis in Terezin, 550 were killed in the Holocaust. Now all of the remaining drawings are in the collection of the Jewish Museum of Prague.

Bedrich Fritta perished in Auschwitz on November 5, 1944. His wife, Johanna, died while in Terezin, but, miraculously, their son Tommy survived. Leo Haas made it through the war, and returned to Terezin to find the artwork he had hidden in the attic of the Magdebourg Barracks. With the assistance of an engineer, Jiri Vogel, he was also able to assist in the recovery of the hidden paintings made by Fritta and their other colleagues from the Technical Department: Otto Unger, Petr Kien, and Ferdinand Bloch, who had all since perished. Upon hearing that Tommy Fritta was left orphaned, Haas and his wife, Erna, adopted the young boy and moved back with him to Prague.

While visiting the Czech Republic, I was able to meet with Lisa Mikova, an artist who worked in the Technical Department of Terezin. Even so many years later, she was able to vividly describe the unusual circumstances in which artists were assigned to do blueprints and various drawings for the Germans, while secretly smuggling art supplies out from the office to do their own work at night. She shared with me how the paintings had been bricked inside the walls of Terezin and how Jiri Vogel buried Bendrich Fritta’s work in a metal canister.

“The Lost Wife,” is not just a story of a sixty year love affair, but also one that explores the power of the artistic spirit, and it’s need to create and document, even under the most horrific conditions.