Fireflies in the Dark: The Story of Friedl Dicker-Brandeis and the Children of Terezin. By Susan Goldman Rubin (Non-fiction: Biography)

In Fireflies in the Dark, Susan Goldman Rubin portrays the hardships Jews faced in the Holocaust during the World War II era. Her main focus is on Friedl Dicker-Brandeis, a Jewish woman who helps children in the Terezin concentration camp cope with their depression by painting, reading, and/or acting. For instance, the children performed a Czech fairy tale called Fireflies to briefly escape the misery of their concentration camp. When she was ordered to leave for Terezin, Friedl packed art supplies for the students she knew she would be helping in the concentration camp. By allowing them to express their emotions and providing them with the resources to do so, Friedl helped to ease some of the pain the children were feeling while in the concentration camp. Sadly, Friedl was separated from her husband, transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, and killed on October 6th, 1944. In addition to this tragedy, only 100 of the 15,000 children who passed through Terezin survived. 


In regards to Fireflies in the Dark, I would use Rubin's book in my classroom when I discussed the Holocaust with my students. Although I know the typical elementary school curriculum standards do not necessarily cover World War II, the Holocaust does represent racism and bigotry in the past. For an activity, I would have the students write about how they would feel if they had to attend a secret school and could not do things they enjoyed like the children in the Terezin concentration camp. Also, if I had enough time to cover the major events in World War II, I would have the students complete a time line of these events in conjunction with the events in this story as well as other Holocaust stories.