{"id":103191,"date":"2025-07-29T22:26:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T22:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/103191\/"},"modified":"2025-07-29T22:26:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T22:26:09","slug":"san-diego-author-highlights-nazi-show-camp-in-latest-novel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/103191\/","title":{"rendered":"San Diego author highlights Nazi \u2018show camp\u2019 in latest novel"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN DIEGO \u2013 Jennifer Coburn will discuss her historical fiction novel, \u201cThe Girls of the Glimmer Factory<\/a>,\u201d set in the Nazi\u2019s Theresienstadt \u201cshow camp\u201d during WWII, at La Jolla Riford Library on Aug. 12.<\/p>\n

Based on the real story of the Theresienstadt concentration camp, Coburn\u2019s talk will begin at 6 p.m. in the library\u2019s community room at 7555 Draper Avenue.<\/p>\n

The \u201cGlimmer Factory\u201d has been described as a \u201cpoignant tale of resistance, friendship, and the dangers of propaganda.\u201d In German concentration camps, a \u201cglimmer factory\u201d referred to\u00a0a mica-splitting factory, where female prisoners were forced to work.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mica, or \u201cglimmer,\u201d is a mineral with thin, shimmering layers that was used for electrical insulation in Luftwaffe aircraft.\u00a0The work involved slicing the mica into tiny slivers, a tedious and dusty process that caused lung diseases among the workers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The novel, written by Coburn \u2013 who is Jewish \u2013 references the \u201cRemember Us The Holocaust<\/a>\u201d lecture series, which is on exhibit now through June 28, 2026, on the Garth Family Reading Level of the Joan & Irwin Jacobs Annex at La Jolla\/Riford Library<\/a>.<\/p>\n

RUTH is a nonprofit dedicated to documenting and preserving the legacy of Holocaust survivors. La Jolla\/Riford Library\u2019s RUTH exhibit highlights the stories of Holocaust survivors who are living in San Diego County. The exhibit also showcases important Holocaust artifacts and World War II memorabilia.<\/p>\n

But there is a \u201creal story\u201d behind the story, of how Coburn researched her bestselling Holocaust novel. She wanted a deeper understanding of the German concentration camp she was writing about. After having digested everything possible about Theresienstadt, she knew she had to go even further.<\/p>\n

Realizing some questions could only be answered by actually traveling from her Del Cerro home to the Czech Republic, Coburn spent several days at the former Theresienstadt ghetto\/transit camp, which the Nazis created for propaganda films and Red Cross inspections.<\/p>\n

What Coburn learned from her Theresienstadt experience has become her mission to share with others. \u201cTheresienstadt was a model camp to fool the world that Jews were being treated well, when it was a propaganda camp,\u201d Coburn said. <\/p>\n

She noted \u201cGlimmer Factory\u201d is her fictional novel telling the story of two childhood best friends reuniting as adults in the camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne is a prisoner,\u201d said Coburn. \u201cThe other character is a Nazi working for the Ministry of Propaganda. I realized this camp needed a book of its own. It needed powerful characters living under increasingly devastating circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coburn noted the Nazis made Theresienstadt \u201cappear\u201d as if it were a vibrant cultural center.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were many artists and intellectuals, and there were concerts conducted, on average, twice a night, with 500 musical performances, some composed,\u201d Coburn said. \u201cThe prisoners there used their creativity as a means of survival.\u201d<\/p>\n

About 155,000 people went through the gates of Theresienstadt during 3 \u00bd years, with 40,000 prisoners there at any given time, and 60,000 at the camp\u2019s peak.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was not a death camp in the same way Auschwitz was,\u201d Coburn said. \u201cPeople were not working at gas chambers. It was a work camp where they worked you to death. About 34,000 people were lucky enough to have survived the camp, while 33,000 died from starvation and disease.\u201d<\/p>\n

In researching \u201cGlimmer Factory,\u201d Coburn noted she \u201cflew 7,000 miles and spent five days at Theresienstadt,\u201d which she added is a tourist memorial with a museum in an underdeveloped small town.<\/p>\n

\u201cI stayed in a hotel that was once prisoner housing,\u201d she noted. \u201cI walked the grounds, looked at all the pieces of art that are still on the site, and let the experience just happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing that happened that was a great coincidence was, on my very last day there, I ran into a group of teen students doing a documentary film,\u201d Coburn said. \u201cThey took me to an area of tunnels that were made 80 years ago by prisoners who wanted to be remembered and tell the world that their lives mattered. They had etched the names of their hometowns, and some did drawings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked what she\u2019d like people to get out of reading \u201cThe Girls of the Glimmer Factory,\u201d Coburn said: \u201cI would like them to leave knowing more about [Theresienstadt] than they came in with. I want to renew or ignite their curiosity, get them to start asking questions about how the Nazis used propaganda tactics, and how those tactics can threaten our world today.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN DIEGO \u2013 Jennifer Coburn will discuss her historical fiction novel, \u201cThe Girls of the Glimmer Factory,\u201d set…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":103192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,66815,1582,276,14446,3548,66816,66817,3549,7264,66818,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,66819],"class_list":{"0":"post-103191","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-auschwitz","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-holocaust","13":"tag-la-jolla","14":"tag-nazis","15":"tag-remember-us-the-holocaust","16":"tag-san-diego","17":"tag-sandiego","18":"tag-theresienstadt-concentration-camp","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-usa","25":"tag-ww-ii"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}