Antonio Iturbe lives in Spain where he is both a novelist and a journalist. In researching The
Librarian of Auschwitz he interviewed Dita Kraus the real-life librarian of Auschwitz. Lilit
Zekulin Thwaites is an award-winning literary translator. After thirty years as an academic at
La Trobe University in Australia she retired from teaching and now focuses primarily on her
ongoing translation and research projects. Dita Kraus was born in Prague. In 1942 when Dita
was thirteen years old she and her parents were deported to Ghetto Theresienstadt and later
to Auschwitz . Neither of Dita's parents survived. After the war Dita married the author Otto
B. Kraus. 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.
