Many good people have contributed to this act of remembrance in their individual, creative, and practical ways, but none more so than Anny Stern, whose passion to see her mother’s book published ceased only with her own death.
Among the host of others to be thanked for their various forms of participation, there are nine who must be specially singled out—Michael Berenbaum of the United States Holocaust Museum, for immediately seeing the importance of the Terezín cookbook and making time for it; Fern Berman, for putting her humanity and talent in the service of this book; Bianca Steiner Brown, for sharing her deep knowledge and having the courage to undertake this painful task; Dalia Carmel, for starting this project down the long road to its present state and standing by it; Jane Dystel of Jane Dystel Literary Management, for her commitment and always wise counsel; Andrea and Warren Grover, for their generosity of spirit and for being there when it mattered most; Wangsheng Li, for appearing out of nowhere to keep it all going; and David Stern, Mina Pächter’s grandson, who has been a friend and support. Without their help this book might not have been realized. It is impossible to thank any of them sufficiently.
Others contributed mightily, too. Among them are Dina Abramowicz of YIVO; Barbara Jolson Blumenthal; George Brown; Esther Brumberg of A Living Memorial to the Holocaust-Museum of Jewish Heritage; Susan Cernyak-Spatz of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte; Meira Edelstein of Yad Vashem; Helen Epstein; Rozanne Gold; Carmen Hendershott; Karen Hess; Professor Wilma Iggers; Marion Kaplan of Queens College; David Karp; Professor Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett of New York University; Liesel Laufer; Roland Marandino; Sabina Margulies, Genya Markon of the United States Holocaust Museum; Dr. Jan Munk of Monument Terezín; Joan Nathan; Rabbi Norman Patz; Diana Perez; Alisah Schiller of Beit Terezín and Kibbutz Givat Chaim Ichud; Diane Speilman and Renata Stein of the Leo Baeck Institute; and Václava Suchá of Monument Terezín.
Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to Arthur Kurzweil, Janet Warner, Aliza Stein, and Adam Schindler of Jason Aronson Inc.
Cara De Silva
“Recipes written across a photograph of Hitler”: A page from the cookbook written by Malka Zimmet in Lenzing, a branch camp of Mauthausen. A portion of the book was inscribed on multiple copies of a propaganda leaflet for the Third Reich. (Courtesy of Yad Vashem, Jerusalem.)
“Food Delivery”: Watercolor and ink on paper. This drawing by Helga Weissová Hosková depicts the food carts that were pulled through the ghetto and was created in Terezín in 1943 when the artist was just 14 years old. Helga and her mother were deported to Auschwitz in 1944, at which time her drawings were given to her uncle, who hid them until liberation. Helga and her mother both survived the war. (Peter Goldberg/Museum of Jewish Heritage.)
“Essenausgabe”: Pen-and-ink drawing by Peter Lowenstein. Depiction of aspects of food distribution in the Terezín ghetto—ration cards, wagons laden with barrels of food, and groups of people in food lines. The drawing is an example of the “official” art ordered by the Nazis to show the organization of ghetto life. Lowenstein, a Czech Jew, was deported to Auschwitz in 1944 and perished there. (Peter Goldberg/Museum of Jewish Heritage.)
“Stooping for Potato Peelings”: Drawing by Norbert Troller, 1942. Troller (1900–1984) was an architect who was born in Brno. In 1942 he was deported to Terezín where, among other things, he created artworks that depicted the truth of conditions in the camp. In 1944, he was deported to Auschwitz but survived. In 1948, he emigrated to the United States where, ultimately, he opened his own business. The sight of ghetto inhabitants groveling for raw potato peelings was a common one and was depicted by a number of Terezín artists. (Courtesy of the Leo Baeck Institute, New York, and Doris Rauch, Washington, D.C.)
“In Front of the Kitchen”: Drawing by Norbert Troller, 1943. The drawing depicts people standing in line to get food. They are clutching the vessels into which it will be ladled. (Courtesy of the Leo Baeck Institute, New York, and Doris Rauch, Washington, D.C.)
“The Sick Room”: Watercolor by Norbert Troller, 1942. (Courtesy of the Leo Baeck Institute, New York, and Doris Rauch, Washington, D.C.)
“Mina Pächter in 1939 with her grandson, David Peter Stern”: Pächter died in Terezín on Yom Kippur 1944. (Courtesy of David Peter Stern.)
