Friedl Dicker-Brandeis

Frederika Dicker (1898-1944) was born in Vienna. She became a student of Johannes Itten at his private school in Vienna and later followed Itten to study and teach at the Weimar Bauhaus. She was involved in textile design, printmaking, bookbinding and typography workshops from 1919-1923. After leaving the Bauhaus she worked as an artist and textile designer in Berlin, Prague and Hronov. She married Pavel Brandeis in 1936. Dicker-Brandeis and her husband were deported to Terezin in December 1942. During her time at Terezín she gave art lessons and lectures and helped organize secret education classes for the children of Terezín. She saw drawing and art as a way for the children to understand their emotions and environment. In September 1944 her husband was transported to Auschwitz. Dicker-Brandeis volunteered for the next transport to join him. F. Dicker-Brandeis died in Birkenau on 9 October 1944. Her husband Pavel survived. After the war two suitcases with children's drawings were brought to the Jewish Community in Prague. From the nearly 660 authors of the drawings 550 were killed in the Holocaust. The drawings are now in the Prague Jewish Museum, with some on display in the Pinkas Synagogue in Prague.