They'll Have to Catch Me First

"Berlin 1939. At eighteen, Irene Awret attempted to escape to Belgium but was arrested. After several weeks in jail, she was tried and sent back home. With her father's help, however, she and her sister met up with another smuggler who got them across the German border. Living in near poverty, Mrs. Awret found work in Brussels and eventually attended art school. Soon after the Nazi occupation, the young artist was forced into hiding. Though she obtained false identity papers, she was caught by the S.S. and jailed in a narrow cell, destined for deportation to Auschwitz. To calm her fears, she made a detailed drawing of her hand in the sketchbook she carried in her purse. While interrogating her, S.S. Captain Fritz Erdmann found the sketchbook and was struck by this single drawing. Unbeknownst to her, he gave orders that spared her from deportation. During her imprisonment, Mrs. Awret did sketches of camp life and of inmates, while surreptitiously painting portraits as well. The child pictured in "Redhaired Girl in a Green Coat" was a young prisoner who, like nearly all the children in the camp, would die in Auschwitz."--BOOK JACKET.