Biographical/Historical Information
David Gruenfeld was born in Uzhorod (Ruthenia) in 1915. He was training as an opera singer in Prague until the outbreak of hostilities in the late 1930s, and he was then interred at Theresienstadt. While imprisoned in the camp, Gruenfeld performed in operas including "Carmen" and "Der Kaiser von Atlantis," in the "Terezin Requiem" and also in various recitals. Gruenfeld was also trained in jewelry making, and he made jewelry at the camp in secret, as a way to make extra money, or in exchange for food or other resources. He survived Theresienstadt and in 1946 emigrated to the United States. He continued performing under the name David Garen as a soloist with various orchestras, as a member of the NBC Opera, and finally as a cantor in Huntington, Long Island. He died in Huntington in 1963.
Marie Picková (née Steuerová) was born in 1904 into an upper middle class Jewish family in Prague, Czechoslovakia. In 1924, she married Viktor Pick, who ran chemical factories. They had two children, their son Jiří Robert (known as Bobby), and their daughter Zuzana. The entire Pick family was sent to Theresienstadt in 1943. Soon after arriving, Marie and Viktor joined an underground group aiming to smuggle food packages into the camp. The couple had joined the group in Marie's name, as women were less likely to be executed if caught. The organizer of the smuggling group was arrested and turned in Marie, who was taken into the Gestapo headquarters and held in a basement cell. She was questioned several times, but always denied that she knew or did anything. She was imprisoned for three weeks and then released, one of the few people to leave the Gestapo prison alive. She was sick for many months afterwards, but Marie and her two children survived Theresienstadt. Viktor was killed in Auschwitz in 1944. After the rise of Communism in Czechoslovakia, Marie and Zuzana emigrated to Argentina in 1948. Bobby stayed in Prague and became a successful writer. Zuzana later emigrated to America and became a translator, researcher, and filmmaker. Marie died in Argentina at the age of 86 in 1990.
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Citation
Grünfeld, David: Pin with three charms made for Marie Picková in Theresienstadt, Leo Baeck Institute, 2022.47.