Monique Frankston, née Kraus, was born in Paris. Her father SLAVKO KRAUS came from Zagreb, in the former Yugoslavia. He was a jewelry designer and an artist. During the war Slavko, his wife Klara and their daughter Monique were in hiding in Normandy. A french concierge denounced them as jews and they were arrested and sent to a concentration camp. Monique was in school at the time they came so she escaped the arrest.
Slavko was sent to Auschwitz on July 19, 1942 on transport #7. Klara was sent to Auschwitz on November 6, 1942 on transport #42. What happened next is conjecture.
While in the concentration camp the Nazis found out that Slavko was a painter and they had him paint a portrait of their wife or daughter from photographs they gave him. He did so and probably received an extra ration of bread for it. And when he was alone, he painted a portrait of Klara, his wife, from memory. They both died in Auschwitz.
The painting was rolled up and somehow got outside the camp. It then went from hand to hand until some time in 1946, after the war, someone came to Monique and asked if she was the daughter of Slavko Kraus and handed her the portrait that you see above.
Copyright 2009 Jay Frankston
Last Updated 05/31/2009 (RGE)