Dita Kraus

Dita Kraus was born in Prague. In 1942, when Dita was thirteen years old , she and her parents were deported to Ghetto Theresienstadt, later to Auschwitz, where Dita’s father died. She and her mother were sent to forced labor in Germany and finaly to the concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen. Dita’s mother didn’t survive.

After the war Dita married the author Otto B. Kraus, who was a fellow prisoner at Auschwitz and a teacher in the camp. They emigrated to Israel in 1949, where they both worked as teachers. They had three children. Since Otto’s death in 2000, Dita lives alone in Netanya. She has four grandchildren and four great grandchildren.

Despite the horrors of the concentration camps, Dita has kept her positive approach to life. She paints delicate watercolours of the colourful wildflowers that grow in Israel. Otto wrote a novel about his experiences, The Children's Block. (Originally published as The Painted Wall.)