San Diego resident Jennifer Coburn has a habit of venturing down historical research queries — physically exploring destinations around the world, art, architecture, firsthand accounts, and more.

Her passion to do so led to debut historical novel Cradles of the Reich, which explores the Lebensborn project, a Nazi breeding program to create a so-called master race. Here, thousands of individuals deemed racially fit per Nazi standards, were bred. The babies were then taken from their mothers to be raised as part of the new Germany.

Coburn’s latest research fixation has produced her newest publication The Girls of the Glimmer Factory, where she takes readers to a small Czech village where Nazis crated Theresienstadt, or a “model ghetto,” used for propaganda films and Red Cross inspections, she explained.

Nazis began transporting Czech Jews to Theresienstadt, with the promise of paradise. In reality, they were brought as prisoners for slave labor for the German war effort and propaganda purposes. Those that survived did so with starvation rations and unhygienic conditions. The ghetto, moreover, served as a station to death camps located in the east, in particular, Auschwitz.

Despite these horrors, a vibrant cultural life was created by Theresienstadt’s prisoners. Many were world-renowned artists, musicians, and intellectuals — with over thousands of visual art, musical works, and lectures created and performed

“This is a testament to the resilience of artists, musicians, and intellectuals imprisoned at Theresienstadt,” Coburn said in an author’s note. “To many, embracing joy was an act of resistance.”

Nazis permitted these activities because doing so supported their propaganda campaigns. Theresienstadt thus became a place where Nazis could take Red Cross inspectors in order to convince them that any talk of death camps were just rumors fabricated by the Lugenpresse, or the lying news and Jewish sensationalists. 
 When beginning researching efforts for her novel, Coburn visited the site of the former ghetto and in her own words, spent “unhurried time exploring the artwork, architecture, and natural environment of the three-and-a-half-square-mile town.” She even found a hotel that once housed the Kaffeehaus where Red Cross inspectors were shown staged scenes: happy residents dancing to the ghetto’s swingers jazz band.

“I almost wrote about Theresienstadt in ‘Cradles of the Reich,’ but the more I learned, I realized that this propaganda camp had to be more than a story element of a novel,” Coburn said. “It needed to be its own story with its own cast of characters who would show the strength of human connection, kindness, art, and beauty.”

Readers are thus presented with the character Hannah, who longs for the days when she was free but, is now a Jewish prisoner at Theresienstadt. Hannah, along with other resistance members, vows to disrupt Nazi plans of a propaganda film aimed to convince society that the Jewish people are well and taken care of in these camps. Hilde, however, is a true believer in the Nazi cause and works in the Reich Ministry of Enlightenment and Propaganda. Helping her party create a documentary to renew confidence in Hitler’s plans for Jewish containment, Hilde recognizes Hannah, her childhood friend.

Considerable time went into the research and planning portion of Coburn’s newest publication, even consulting with food historian Ursula Heinzelmann, Historian of Nazi propaganda Dr. Randall Bytwerk, Architectural Historian Charles Belfoure, and Theresienstadt researcher Pavel Patel. She additionally includes expressions, real situations, and actual language from Holocaust survivors written in testimony or diaries to incorporate their voices.

Now, Coburn is working on “a historical novel set in 1955 New York City, loosely based on my mother’s experiences as a ‘beard,’ a fake girlfriend, for gay men in Greenwich Village.”

The Girls of the Glimmer Factory is currently available for pre-order ahead of it’s Jan. 28 release date.

Coburn will talk about her latest book during an appearance on Monday, Jan. 24 at 2 p.m. at the San Carlos Branch Library.

Further information about Coburn, her novels, research, and more can be found at https://jennifercoburn.com/.