Petr Ginz

Petr Ginz ( February 1, 1928 in Prague, † 1944 in Auschwitz ) was a young Czech artist and author.

Life

Ginz was the son of a Czech Jewish father Ota (1896-1976) and a Czech mother, Marie (later Mirjam ), who lived during the Shoah in Prague and was imprisoned in the Theresienstadt ghetto. He was a talented illustrator and wrote stories and novels, which were based on Jules Verne. At the age of 14, he became the first and only editor of the youth magazine Vedem in the Theresienstadt ghetto. For many issues, he was author, lecturer and editor in one person.

One of his drawings, on the surface of the Moon can be seen, acquired in January 2003 by celebrity that she had taken as a copy on board the space shuttle Columbia astronaut Ilan Ramon, the Israeli. In this space flight, the Columbia broke apart on 1 February 2003 during re-entry into Earth's atmosphere.

Shortly after the crash of the Columbia was Petr's sister Eva Pressburger, who had survived the Holocaust, the message from Prague that parts of his diaries were again found there in an attic. In them Petr describes precisely and dissociates the increasing restriction of the rights of the Jews and the beginning of the deportation of Jewish neighbors during the German occupation in Prague between 19 September 1941 and 9 August 1942., The German language edition of Ginz 's diary was first time in 2006 published together with linocuts, drawings and six poems and stories from the time in the concentration camp Theresienstadt.

Honors

The asteroid 50413 was named in his honor Petrginz.

2005 the Czech Post to commemorate out a 31- kc- stamp the moon drawing and a portrait.

Works

• Prague Diary, 1941-1942. Edited by Chava Pressburger ( sister of the author ). From the Czech by Eva Profousová. Berlin Verlag Bloomsbury Publishing, 2006 and 2007, 167 pages. ISBN 978-3-8270-5245-2. Issues among others in Czech ( 2004), Spanish, Catalan and Esperanto appeared before in English in 2007.
• We Are Children Just the Same: Vedem, the Secret Magazine by the Boys of Terezin. Ed. Zdenek Ornest, Marie Ruth Křížková, et al. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1995 ISBN 0 - 8276-0534 -X..