B-4112: The Blue Diamonds
B-4112: The Blue Diamonds
A Quest for Diamonds in World Wars
By Gary Hendershott
B-4112: The Blue Diamonds is a historical narrative tracing the fate of extraordinary blue diamonds across two world wars. The title refers to something more personal: the Birkenau inmate number tattooed on Richard Friedemann, Gary’s close friend and a Holocaust survivor of seven Nazi death camps.
The book weaves together two stories — the wartime trail of looted treasures and the extraordinary life of a man who survived the unsurvivable. It is at once a work of historical investigation and a testament to bearing witness, driven by the same commitment to preserving the record that has defined Gary’s life’s work.
A companion documentary is also in development, preserving Richard Friedemann’s testimony in his own words.
“Richard survived seven death camps. His story deserves to be told — not just in interviews, but in a book that places his testimony alongside the broader history of what was taken, hidden, and lost during those years.”Get Notified on Publication
The Man Behind the Title
Richard Friedemann survived seven Nazi death camps during the Second World War. His Birkenau inmate number — B-4112 — gives the book its title and its heart.
Gary Hendershott met Richard through the course of his decades-long engagement with WWII history and the material culture of the war. Their friendship became the foundation for a project that grew beyond a conventional history book — into a work of testimony, research, and remembrance.
The diamonds that thread through the narrative — blue stones of extraordinary value and uncertain fate — connect the personal story to the broader wartime history of looted cultural property: the theft, displacement, and occasional recovery of objects that carry the weight of the lives lost alongside them.
The Companion Documentary
Alongside the book, Gary is developing a companion documentary film that preserves Richard Friedemann’s testimony in his own voice — a firsthand record of survival and witness for future generations.
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