Hans (who was born Reyersbach) and Margarete Waldstein (who changed her first name to Margret in 1935) were born eight years apart, in Hamburg, Germany, into Jewish families.
Hans fought on the eastern front in the First World War. He loved drawing, and when the war was over, he designed posters for the circus before leaving for Brazil in search of better opportunities.
Hans knew six languages, including Greek and Latin. He now added Portuguese to his repertoire, as he traveled the country selling bath tubs and kitchen sinks, and drawing monkeys on the banks of the Amazon.
All this is true.
Back in Germany, Adolf Hitler came to power. (That, too, is true.) Margarete who had studied for a time at the Bauhaus, wisely left Germany to work as a photographer in London. She then left for Brazil, following in the footsteps of Hans, who was a family friend.
The two artists were married in August 1935. And, as Louise Borden, the author of a children’s book called “The Journey that Saved Curious George,’’ helpfully notes, “they lived together in their Rio apartment with two pet marmosets’’ who were “always getting into mischief.’’
The couple decided to honeymoon in Paris. They were both artists, after all; it felt like the place to be.
They moved into the Terrass Hotel in Montmartre and stayed four years. Unfortunately, the marmosets hadn’t survived the voyage from Rio, so they decided to share their accommodations instead with two turtles, Claudia and Claudius.
Things became complicated in 1939 when war broke out. The Reys (they had changed their surname in Rio) left Paris for the south of France, stayed four months, then returned to Paris. Hans worked all this time on illustrations for “Fifi’’; a new story, “Whiteblack the Penguin’’; and a book of nursery rhymes in French and English.
