Petr Ginz Young artist from Ghetto

1. Key Action 2 Nr. 2016-1-CZ01-KA219-023883This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.“This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the European Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein."

2. Petr Ginz Young artist from Ghetto

3. Petr was born on 1st of February 1928 in Prague, he was a versatily gifted boy with exceptional fantasy and enormous talent His father was a Jew, a mother of non-Jewish origin, both parents were enthusiastic Esperantists, very educated - they cared for healthy living and led their children to reading and culture, nature and sports[Esperanto (originally Lingvo Internationa - "international language") is the most widely used international programming language.] Petr had a two years younger sister Eva who moved to Israel after was and changed her name to Chava Pressburger

4. Ginz Family, Ota (father), Petr, Marie (mother) and Eva

5. According to the anti-Jewish laws and regulations children of mixed marriage, Jewish / Aryan had to be placed in the ghetto or work camps at the age of 14 In addition to literary and artistic talent, Petr was interested in many things - he loved the books of Jules Verne, he liked to invent and was an enthusiastic seeker of truth - whether it was history, astronomy, paleontology, geography, or other disciplines. From a very early age Peter was a very active and cultivated boy. During the German occupation before he was deported (aged 12-13), he wrote his own novel ("Visitation from Prehistory") in the style of Jules Verne, which he illustrated himself.

6. "A monster will come, worse than this one, which will be controlled by evil will and equipped with the most modern technical means, will prey humanity in a terrible way." writes Petr at the end of his novel

7. From 1941 to 1942 he led a regular diary, in which, in addition to personal experiences, he described the situation in Prague during the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and the progressive persecution of the Jews from his own point of view. At that time, he could no longer attend a school with children of non-Jewish origin, except for the still limited teaching, organized in "shifts", alternately in the morning and afternoon, as well as other Jewish children, he was more and more frequently employed for some jobs in Prague. None of this, however, did not harm his innate optimism or his essential direction to the good (his sister, for example, recalls that she does not remember he ever wept).

8. 19th of septembre 1941 (Friday) The weather is foggy. A badge for Jews was introduced. It looks something like this. On my way to school I counted 69 sheriffs. My mom counted more than 100. Dlouhá třída (name of street in Prauge) is called a Milky way. This afternoon I went with Eva to Troja (part of Prague).

9. During this period, his organizational skills are already evident in organizing various school events and helping classmates (for example, benefit organization collections in favor of a friend suffering from tuberculosis) In October 1942, he was tranported to the Terezín Ghetto, where he was assigned to a so-called "boy's home (heim) 1" in building L 417 under the pedagogical leadership of ValterEisinger, a young talented teacher from Brno who created from several dozen boys living together a creative collective ( they called themselves the "Republic of Škid"), where the boys not only secretly educated, but also set up their own self-government in which they democratically solved their problems and problems of their surroundings. And every Friday they published a magazine VEDEM.

10. Peter was one of the most prominent personalities in the life of first heim, especially in their self-government and the life of the boy's collective (from the memories of his friends and the articles he wrote in the magazine, his influence on the environment was very strong - he was able to strengthen the good relations between people, to find each one good, to be an example of self-deception and an attempt to constantly develop, to show the other real values ​​and to provide hope, despite the increasingly hopeless situation in Terezin.) His most important activity was the work of editor-in-chief of the already mentioned magazine VEDEM. In addition to creating a large number of galleries, reflections, short stories, and poetry, he has systematically initiated literary, reportage or art work with his friends, leading them to personal growth, self-reflection, self-esteem for others. It was customary that his good-natured insistence often "forced" articles from boys who were themselves completely incompetent in this respect, and they were then able to create often very interesting texts.

12. At this time, he had access to the Terezin Library and reads an unbelievable amount of books in free moments - ranging from high-quality fiction, through history and philosophy, to natural sciences. He uses his knowledge, among other things, in the framework of secret evening lectures, which regularly take place at the heim 1 and where, besides other boys and other guests, he often performs with his papers. In May 1944, his sister Eve was transported to the ghetto, her memories of a meeting with Peter captured in her diary. By the end of September 1944, Peter and his cousin, Paul, were assigned to a "eastward transport" and after several days of waiting at the Hamburg Barracks, he was transported to Auschwitz on September 28, 1944. His sister, who had a very painful departure of both loved ones, recalled that the brother was "incredibly quiet." It is probable that on his journey to Auschwitz he took his unfinished novel "The Altai sage" in the hope that he will be able to write it there.

13. For some time before the transport, Peter was sick and weak. After a several-day trip to Poland in the wagons, he was on his way to the concentration camp, one witness said he was sent straight to the gas chamber by dr. Josef Mengele. At the end of the war, Petr's friends managed to save the magazine VEDEM.

14. When Israeli cosmonaut Illan Ramon whose mother also experienced the horror of the concentration camps, was preparing for his first flight in 2002, He decided to take a Holocaust memorial to his flight. From all the pictures he eventually decided for Petr's painting "The Earth from the Moon" which the he had created in Terezín with his pencil according to his imagination.The Columbia Shuttle was destroyed on February 1, 2003 on its return from its 28th mission. All seven astronauts on board died. That's when Petr's drawing first got into all the media

15. Year later a book called „Prince with yellow star“ was published. It contains interview with Petr‘s sister, teacher, his friends who survived the holocaust, pictures of his drawing, pages from his dairy and his personal notes as well as some pages from the magazine Vedem.

16. Petr's dreams of visiting the universe were unfortunately unfulfilled. But his work in known and admired in the whole world. Last year, US astronaut Andrew Feustel announced that he wants to take pictures of the Vedem magazine on board ISS in march 2018. So Petr's work will be on the way to the universe once again

17. Petr was an exceptional young boy who to this day (now it's exactly 90 years since he was born) inspires a lot of people all around the world. While reading the book "Prince with yellow star" that I mentioned before, you can feel how everyone who knew Petr was amazed by his personality and skills. Everyone loved him and remember him only in the good. Thank you so much for reading this presentation. I feel ashamed that I heard about him just last year but I‘ll make sure to spread his unbelievebly inspirational story.