Vedem
This article needs additional citations for verification. (November 2023) |
Vedem ([We Are] In the Lead) was a
History of the magazine
The Theresienstadt Ghetto is known for
The inspiration for the authors of Vedem was their teacher, twenty-eight-year-old "Professor"
Eisinger himself never contributed directly to Vedem, but did add the occasional editorial or translation from Russian. The work itself was done by the boys, who wandered around Terezin looking for themes. Each boy took a nickname to sign their articles. This might have been obscure initials, a pseudonym, or some personal quirk like "Dummy" or "Bolshevik." Sometimes, the nicknames would change. For instance, one prolific contributor, Jiří Grünbaum, called himself "Medic Šnajer," "Socialist Šnajer," or just "Šnajer," depending on his mood. Hanuš Hachenburg contributed several poems and was an avid collaborator. Today, many of the contributors can only be identified by their nicknames, and their true identities are unknown. At some point in 1943, ten of the most prolific contributors began to refer to themselves as the "Academy."
The boys smuggled in art supplies to work on the magazine. They found an abandoned typewriter and used it to create the first 30 issues. The next 53 issues were made by hand after the typewriter ran out of ink. A boy served as lookout as the rest worked on the wooden table in the middle of the bunkroom, or while sitting on their bunks. If a guard approached, he would give a secret signal and the others would hide their work.[2]
One of the outstanding contributors to Vedem was "nz," or Petr Ginz, who at 14 was editor-in-chief of the magazine. At 16, Ginz was deported to Auschwitz, where he was gassed. A copy his drawing "Moon Landscape" was taken by Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon onto the Space Shuttle Columbia, which disintergated upon the reentry.[3] In 2018 a copy of the drawing was taken to the space again, to the International Space Station, by Andrew J. Feustel.[4]
The boys tried as much as possible to create a real magazine, even jokingly adding a price on the cover. The material included poetry, adventure stories, essays, and book reviews, as well as popular features such as the "Quote of the Week," chosen from among silly things the boys said. For instance, "Medic Šnajer" was once quoted as saying, "I am afraid to speak. I might say something stupid." "Embryo" was quoted as saying, "
In one edition, a review of
Preservation and publication
By 1944, most of the inhabitants of Home L417, together with most of other inhabitants of the Ghetto had been deported to the East and most of them perished in gas chambers of Auschwitz, and no more issues were produced. Of the 92 boys who participated in the effort to produce Vedem, only fifteen survived. Only one of them, Zdeněk Taussig, remained in Terezín until its liberation in May 1945. He had hidden about 700 pages of the magazine in the blacksmith shop where his father had worked, and brought them to Prague after he was liberated.
After the war, efforts to publish Vedem were thwarted under the
Selections from Vedem, illustrated by art that appeared in the magazine, as well as with the drawings by other children in Terezín,[3] were published with an introduction by Václav Havel in 1995, translated in English as We Are Children Just the Same: Vedem, the Secret Magazine of the Boys of Terezín.[a] The editors of this selection included Kurt Jiři Kotouč and Zdenĕk Ornest, two of the original contributors from Terezín. The book is the winner of the 1995 National Jewish Book Award by the Jewish Book Council.
Notes
- ^ Czech title: Je mojí vlastí hradba ghett? : Básně, próza a kresby terezínských dětí, also translated in German as Ist meine Heimat der Ghettowall? - Gedichte, Prosa und Zeichnungen der Kinder von Theresienstadt, both read "Is my home the ghetto wall? - Poems, prose and drawings by the children of Theresienstadt."
References
- ^ a b Ghetto Museum
- ^ Katz, Suzanne. "Terezin Teens Fought Back with Underground Magazine". atlantajewishtimes.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 2019-05-24.
- ^ a b Helena Kalendová Petr Ginz a jeho Měsíční krajina: Židovský chlapec, jehož kresbu vynesli do vesmíru
- ^ „Náš“ kosmonaut se vrací do vesmíru a opět s sebou veze něco z Česka Zdroj: https://www.idnes.cz/technet/vesmir/andrew-drew-feustel-iss-peter-ginz.A180320_102451_tec_vesmir_kuz
External links
- The website about the magazine Vedem (www.vedem-terezin.cz)
- An overview of the magazine, including a sample poem and article
Further reading
- Terezín. Council of Jewish Communities in the Czech Lands, 1965.
- We Are Children Just the Same: Vedem, the Secret Magazine by the Boys of Terezin. Ed. Zdenek Ornest, Marie Rut Krizkova, et al. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1995. ISBN 978-0-8276-0534-3.