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    Artist

  • Grünfeld, David, 1915-1963

    • Title

  • Star of David charm worn by Zuzana Justman in Theresienstadt

  • Physical Description

    1 charm : metal (possibly silver) ; 3/4" x 1/2" ; 2 cm x 2 cm

  • Date

    circa 1944-45

  • Summary

    Small Star of David (Magen David) charm with a hook a the top. The charm was worn by Zuzana Justman on a string necklace while she was a child in Theresienstadt.

  • Subject

    Theresienstadt (Concentration camp); Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)

  • Medium

    Accessories; Jewelry; Objects

  • Part Of

    Pick- Justman Family Collection, AR 12139

  • Accession Number

  • URL

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.

Zuzana Justman (née Picková) was born in 1931 into an upper middle class Jewish family in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Her family included father Viktor Pick, who ran chemical factories, her mother Marie Picková, and her brother Jiří Robert (known as Bobby). The entire Pick family was sent to Theresienstadt in 1943. Marie and her two children survived Theresienstadt, while Victor 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 then came to America in 1950 to attend Vassar College; she later obtained a PhD in Slavic Linguistics at Columbia University. Justman has worked as a translator, writer, researcher, and filmmaker and playwright. Her documentaries include "Terezin Diary" (1989), "Czech Women: Now We Are Free" (1993), and "Voices of the Children" (1996) which won an Emmy and multiple other awards, and "A Trial in Prague" (2000). Justman's plays include "Waiting for Father" (2018) and a 2006 adaptation of a Czech play "The Unlucky Man in the Yellow Cap" originally written by her brother J.R. Pick in 1982.

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Citation

Grünfeld, David: Star of David charm worn by Zuzana Justman in Theresienstadt, Leo Baeck Institute, 2022.48.