Friedl Dicker-Brandeis
Frederika "Friedl" Dicker-Brandeis (30 July 1898, Vienna – 9 October 1944, Auschwitz-Birkenau), was an Austrian artist, designer and educator murdered by the Nazis in the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp. From 1919-1923 she was a student at the Weimar Bauhaus.
Also recorded as Freidl Dicker · Friederike Dicker · Friedl Dicker · Friedel Dicker
Friedl Dicker-Brandeis

Public domain
- Born
- 1898.
- Nationality
- Austria and Czechoslovakia.
- Occupation
- painter, pedagogue, photographer, graphic artist and designer.
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
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Documentary summary
Frederika "Friedl" Dicker-Brandeis (30 July 1898, Vienna – 9 October 1944, Auschwitz-Birkenau), was an Austrian artist, designer and educator murdered by the Nazis in the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp. From 1919-1923 she was a student at the Weimar Bauhaus.
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Friedl Dicker-Brandeis (1898–1944) was a designer, graphic artist and painter, among other activities, of Austrian and Czechoslovak nationality. The designer was born in Vienna and died in Auschwitz.
Friedl Dicker-Brandeis was educated at Bauhaus. The designer worked for Bauhaus and worked in Prague and Terezín. Activity centred on painting. Languages used include German.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 26 September 2026
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technical hold · checked 25 September 2026
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bnf · getty · gnd · loc · wikidata · Q85924 · wikipedia · Friedl Dicker-Brandeis
In this article
Biography
Biography
Frederika Dicker was born in Vienna on 30 July 1898, into a poor Jewish family. Her father was a shop-assistant; her mother, Karolina, died in 1902. She married Pavel Brandeis in 1936 and used the hyphenated surname after that. Dicker-Brandeis was a student of Johannes Itten at his private school in Vienna, and later followed Itten to study and teach at the Weimar Bauhaus. After completing the obligatory one semester Bauhaus Preliminary Course, Dicker was accepted as a student. She was recognised as an exceptionally gifted student, such that throughout her time at the Weimar Bauhaus she was not required to pay some tuition fees, given scholarship funds and granted a studio in the autumn of 1921. She was involved in the textile design, printmaking, bookbinding, and typography workshops there from 1919-1923. After leaving the Bauhaus, she worked as an artist and textile designer in Berlin, Prague, and Hronov. Dicker-Brandeis wrote to a friend in 1940: I remember thinking in school how I would grow up and would protect my students from unpleasant impressions, from uncertainty, from scrappy learning... Today only one thing seems important — to rouse the desire towards creative work, to make it a habit, and to teach how to overcome difficulties that are insignificant in comparison with the goal to which you are striving.
In World War II
In World War II
Dicker-Brandeis and her husband, Pavel Brandeis, were deported to the Terezín "model ghetto" on December 17, 1942. During her time at Terezín, she gave art lessons and lectures with art supplies she smuggled into the camp. She helped to organize secret education classes for the 600 children of Terezín. She saw drawing and art as a way for the children to understand their emotions and their environment. Dicker-Brandeis insisted that each child must sign their own name, not allowing them to become invisible or anonymous. In this, she persisted in pursuing her goal "to rouse the desire towards creative work." In September 1944, Brandeis was transported to Auschwitz. Dicker-Brandeis volunteered for the next transport to join him. Before she was taken away, she entrusted Raja Engländerova, chief tutor of Girls' Home L 410, with two suitcases containing 4,500 drawings. Dicker-Brandeis was murdered in Birkenau on 9 October 1944. Her husband survived.
Legacy
After the war, Willy Groag, director of the Girls' home L 410, brought the suitcases with children's drawings to the Jewish Community in Prague. From the nearly 660 authors of the drawings, 550 were murdered in the Holocaust. The drawings are now in the Jewish Museum in Prague's collection, with some on display in the Pinkas Synagogue. In 1999, an exhibition of Dicker-Brandeis' work, organized by the Simon Wiesenthal Center and curated by Elena Makarova of Israel, opened in Vienna. It then toured to the Czech Republic, Germany, Sweden, France, USA, and Japan. Her work was included in the 2019 exhibition City Of Women: Female Artists in Vienna from 1900 to 1938 at the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere.

Passport photo of Friedl Dicker-Brandeis 1937
administration of Prague
Primary material
Documents and archives
institutional register
- Bibliothèque nationale de France authority file 125330119
Unverified · Bibliothèque nationale de France
- FAST authority file 264250
Unverified · FAST
- GND (German National Library) authority file 119025337
Unverified · GND (German National Library)
- IdRef (French universities) authority file 034589910
Unverified · IdRef (French universities)
- ISNI authority file 0000000066775512
Unverified · ISNI
- Library of Congress authority file n90609493
Unverified · Library of Congress
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q85924: Friedl Dicker-Brandeis
Unverified · Wikidata
reference work
- “Friedl Dicker-Brandeis”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Otto, Elizabeth. Passages with Friedl Dicker-Brandeis: From the Bauhaus through Theresienstadt. academia.edu. Edition Text & Kritik.
- 2.Salamon, Julie. Keeping Creativity Alive, Even in Hell. The New York Times. September 10, 2004.
- 3.Brown, Kellie. The sound of hope: Music as solace, resistance and salvation during the holocaust and world war II. McFarland. 99–100. 2020.
- 4.Sterling, Eric. Life in the ghettos during the Holocaust. Syracuse University Press. 196. 2005. 978-0-8156-0803-5.
- 5.City of Women. Belvedere Museum Vienna.
Bibliography printed in the source article · 2
- Susan Goldman Rubin: Fireflies in the Dark: The Story of Friedl Dicker-Brandeis and the Children of Terezin, Holiday House Inc New York, 2000,
- Elena Makarova: Friedl Dicker-Brandeis, Vienna 1898–Auschwitz 1944: the artist who inspired the children's drawings of Terezin, 1st edition. Tallfellow/Every Picture Press, in association with Simon Wiesenthal Center/Museum of Tolerance, Los Angeles, 2001,
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
institutional register
Bibliothèque nationale de France authority file 125330119Bibliothèque nationale de France
Partially resolvedinstitutional register
Partially resolvedinstitutional register
GND (German National Library) authority file 119025337GND (German National Library)
Partially resolvedinstitutional register
IdRef (French universities) authority file 034589910IdRef (French universities)
Partially resolvedinstitutional register
Partially resolvedinstitutional register
Library of Congress authority file n90609493Library of Congress
Partially resolvedinstitutional register
RKDartists authority file 252932RKDartists
Partially resolvedinstitutional register
Union List of Artist Names authority file 500115579Union List of Artist Names
Partially resolved
Every cited source · 11
- 01
Bibliothèque nationale de France authority file 125330119
institutional register · Unverified · Bibliothèque nationale de France
Consult the source - 02
- 03
GND (German National Library) authority file 119025337
institutional register · Unverified · GND (German National Library)
Consult the source - 04
IdRef (French universities) authority file 034589910
institutional register · Unverified · IdRef (French universities)
Consult the source - 05
- 06
Library of Congress authority file n90609493
institutional register · Unverified · Library of Congress
Consult the source - 07
- 08
Union List of Artist Names authority file 500115579
institutional register · Unverified · Union List of Artist Names
Consult the source - 09
- 10
Wikidata, structured authority record Q85924: Friedl Dicker-Brandeis
authority record · Unverified · Wikidata
Consult the source - 11
“Friedl Dicker-Brandeis”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
reference work · Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Consult the source
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