The Diary of Petr Ginz, 1941–1942 Read online

  The last theft took place upon the Jews’ arrival in extermination camps, where their personal luggage was taken away from them and their gold teeth pulled out after their death.

  18. XII. 1941

  new crown coins … The Germans introduced a forced, non-real currency value against the mark. The new, Protectorate crown, displayed the armorial lion and on the reverse side the leaves of a linden tree. It was valid during 1941–1944.

  22. XII. 1941

  Hitler is not doing well in Russia … On September 21, 1941, Hitler took over the high command of the ground forces.

  1. I. 1942

  Jews don’t have fruit … Already in October 1939, a system of rations for food and other consumer items was introduced in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, which seriously disadvantaged Jewish citizens. In the course of the war years these rations were increasingly restricted, which lowered especially the living standards of the urban population.

  20. I. 1942

  A new government … on January 19, 1942, R. Heydrich canceled the “civilian state of emergency” and simultaneously named a new Protectorate government led by Dr J. Krejci. E. Moravec was appointed as minister of education. He was an infamous publicist and demagogue who constantly appealed to his fellow citizens to loyally embrace Nazi Germany.

  22. I. 1942

  There are new transports to Theresienstadt … On January 20, 1942, a well-known conference took place in Wannsee about the final solution of the Jewish question. This is not where it was decided to exterminate all the Jews—this had been Hitler’s plan since 1939. The discussion was about the best strategy to achieve this goal. The conference was organized by Heydrich and the participants were the highest functionaries involved in the elimination of Jews. Among other things, it was reported that a special Einsatzkom-mando will be deployed in Russia, which will shoot Jews immediately after conquering new areas. More gas chambers were to be introduced and their size increased.

  Eichmann gave a detailed report about Theresienstadt. The lies about this place had to differ. For example, in Germany it had to be described as a ghetto for old people “to keep up the pretense” for the outside world. Theresienstadt was to fulfill three functions:

  1. A concentration and transition camp on the way to extermination camps in Poland.

  2. An instrument for the destruction of prisoners.

  3. Disinformation about the fate of the Jewish population.

  This last function is well illustrated by events in Theresienstadt, when the ghetto was preparing for the visit of the Red Cross commission on June 23, 1944. For this purpose, certain parts of the town along the visitors’ planned route were made to look nice. Children’s playgrounds were quickly set up, people sat in cafés drinking coffee, young swimmers were swimming in the river Ohre, the prisoners’ food that day was of specially good quality, and many other similarly deceptive details. The commission later reported in Switzerland how comfortable the Jews are in Theresienstadt. They happily allowed themselves to be cheated by the Nazis and made no independent effort to find out about the real life of Theresienstadt inmates.

  The Red Cross delegation arrived without the main officials who had demanded the visit (the president of the Red Cross, the Swedish and Danish ambassadors), but was represented only by the vice president the of Red Cross in Berlin, Dr. Rossel. He wrote a report about a wonderful, completely normal Jewish town, where people live happily and without worries. And he had written this in spite of the fact that the Red Cross had precise information about what was going on and the Theresienstadt camouflage was obvious. At that time, they already had in Geneva the authentic testimony of two inmates who had escaped from Auschwitz, Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler. The scenes that Dr. Rossel had photographed in Theresienstadt were given to the German Ministry of Propaganda for their use.

  26. II. 1942

  There was a bomb assassination … Franz von Papen (1879–1969), Nazi politician, in the years 1939–1944 active as a diplomat in Turkey.

  5. IV. 1942

  The apartment was locked and covered with stickers … “Treuhandstelle” was a department set up by the Jewish religious community in Prague according to a decree of October 13, 1941, to take over and be in charge (“treuhänderisch verwalten”) of furniture and other possessions of evacuees and people transported to concentration camps. It also had a list of abandoned apartments.

  20. IV. 1942

  Hitler is fifty-three years old … On Hitler’s birthday, on April 20, 1942, R. Heydrich received in a festively decorated Hlavni (Main) train station a completely equipped ambulance train as a gift from President Emil Hacha to Adolf Hitler.

  27. V. 1942

  There was an assassination attempt … R. Heydrich was mortally wounded during an assassination attempt carried out by a group of paratroopers from a Czech resistance unit based in England. The Nazis, led by the new Protector Kurt Daluege and K. H. Frank, responded to Heydrich’s death with a terrible persecution of the population. In Prague alone, by July 3, 1942, 442 persons were executed without a reason.

  19. VI. 1942

  they caught the assassins … On June 18, 1942, someone betrayed the group of paratroopers hiding in Karel Boromejsky’s church on Resslova Street in Prague, not far from Karlovo Square. Seven paratroopers were hidden there by Chaplain Petrek. Among them were both organizers of the assassination, Jan Kubis and Jozef Gabcik, also Josef Valcik, Adolf Opalka, and others. After a hopeless battle the heavily wounded paratroopers took their own lives. With the action on Resslova Street, the emergency law and punitive measures did not end—on the contrary, arrests and executions continued: the next day, the Czech prime minister, General Alois Elias, was executed; on June 24, 1942, the Nazis levelled the settlement Lezaky near Louka (Chrudim area), whose adult population was shot to death. Of thirteen children only two returned after the war.

  1. VII. 1942

  Grandma received the summons to a transport. … Within a single month from July 9, to August 10, 1942, Theresienstadt received altogether eight transports from Prague, bringing an influx of 8,460 Jews.

  28. VII. 1942–1. VIII. 1942

  no entries

  5. VIII. 1942–7. VIII. 42

  nothing written

  The diary ends two months before the day when Petr himself joined a transport, on October 22, 1942.

  Earlier, he records that Uncle Milos leaves with his transport on June 14, on June 27 three teachers from his school, on July 1 his grandmother, on July 23 Father’s sister Herma and her husband Levitus, on July 28 Aunt Anda. So it seems that the Germans decided that the conditions were ripe for the total annihilation of Jewish Prague. Within a few months they deported more than twenty thousand people from Prague.

  Toward the end of his diary Petr’s handwriting becomes nervous; his writing is different, disorganized, unsteady. It is clear that he is going through a major psychological crisis; he feels that it is now his own turn.

  His childhood has ended; the happy life with his parents, his sister, his school is finished. Fourteen-year-old Petr begins two years of living in Theresienstadt with new friends and new creative projects. Two years, which end with his journey to a gas chamber in Poland.

  Acknowledgments

  Chava Pressburger

  I thank

  especially my husband Avram

  for his tireless support of my efforts to publish the diary

  and my children Tami and Yoram,

  the Yad Vashem Museum in Jerusalem for moral and financial help,

  the Israeli Embassy in Prague.

  H.E. Ambassador Mr. Arthur Avnon

  and Secretary Mr. Valid Abu Haya

  for their help in acquiring Petr’s bequest,

  Dr. Leo Pavlat, Director of the Jewish Museum in Prague,

  for the introduction he wrote for the original Czech edition

  Vladislav Zadrobilek and his daughters

  Karolina and Zuzana of Trigon Publishing House

  for their personal
attention and professional production of this book,

  my dear friends Mr. Jiri Kotouc

  and Mr. Stanislav Motl for their help and advice,

  and Mr. Jiri Ruzicka from Ricany,

  who found and preserved Petr’s diaries.

  The Fates of Those in Petr’s Diary*

  Jewish Relatives and Friends

  Petr’s father, Otto Ginz, Petr’s sister, Eva Ginz (now Chava Pressburger), and Petr’s cousin Hana Ginz (now Hana Skorpilova) survived.

  Other Nearest Relatives

  Neighbors

  Petr’s Friends and Schoolmates

  Wolfgang Adler survived Auschwitz and was liberated at Gunskirchen

  Teachers at the Jewish School

  Irma Lauscher(ova) survived and was liberated at Theresienstadt

  Others

  Hanka Steinerova survived and was liberated from Auschwitz

  Drawings

  Title page of the first diary

  Page from the first diary

  Page from the first diary

  Title page of the second diary

  Page from the second diary

  Page from the second diary

  Petr Ginz (1928–1944), Sunflower, 1944. Watercolour on paper, 14.5 × 21 cm; Gift of Otto Ginz, Haifa; Collection of the Yad Vashem Art Museum, Jerusalem.

  Petr Ginz (1928–1944), Flowers, 1944. Watercolour on paper. From the private collection of Chava Pressburger.

  Petr Ginz (1928–1944), Flowers, 1944. Watercolour on paper. From the private collection of Chava Pressburger.

  Petr Ginz (1928–1944), Rooftops and Towers of Prague, 1939–1940(?). Watercolour and India ink on paper, 19 × 12.5 cm; Gift of Otto Ginz, Haifa; Collection of the Yad Vashem Art Museum, Jerusalem.

  Petr Ginz (1928–1944), Courtyard, 1942–1944. Pencil on paper, 21 × 28.5 cm; Gift of Otto Ginz, Haifa; Collection of the Yad Vashem Museum, Jerusalem.

  (Ghetto drawing) Theresienstadt: Petr Ginz, Illustration, 1943. From the private collection of Petr’s sister, Chava Pressburger, Israel.

  Petr Ginz (1928–1944), Youth Barrack’s Dwellings, 1943. Watercolour on paper, 29.5 × 21 cm; Gift of Otto Ginz, Haifa; Collection of the Yad Vashem Art Museum, Jerusalem.

  Petr Ginz (1928–1944) Theresienstadt Dwellings, 1942–1944. Watercolour on paper, 21 × 14.5 cm; donation of Otto Ginz, Haifa. Collection of Yad Vashem Art Museum, Jerusalem.

  Petr Ginz (1928–1944), Ghetto Dwellings, 1943. Watercolour on paper, 30 × 22 cm; Gift of Otto Ginz, Haifa; Collection of the Yad Vashem Art Museum, Jerusalem.

  Postal stamp published on the occasion of the explosion of the U.S. space shuttle Columbia STS 107, when Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon perished with the others. He had taken a reproduction of this drawing with him into space. The graphic design is by the artist and designer Pavel Hrach. The engravings are by Vaclav Fajt.

  1. As a child in Prague, Chava Pressburger was called Eva Ginzova.

  2. There was an extensive library in Theresienstadt, consisting of books confiscated from new arrivals. Petr had access to it.

  3. Medieval Czech theatre.

  4. “He is going with the next transport.”

  5. From here Petr continues to write using a secret code he invented himself but which I succeeded in deciphering. He also uses Cyrilic letters, Hebrew letters (but writes Czech text in both), and shorthand. In spite of my attempts to decipher the entire coded text a few bits remain illegible: they are marked with three dots […].

  6. Petr used to make and bind his own notebooks for his novels and diaries, because new exercise books from a shop were not available to Jews at that time. This diary was made from old paper I had obtained for him.

  7. Petr attended a Jewish school on Jachymova Street; the language of instruction was Czech.

  8. Harry Popper, Petr’s friend.

  9. “Miloses” is how we referred to the family of Milos Ginz, an uncle on Father’s side. Similarly, we referred to the Jirins, the Miluskas, the grandmas, and so on. Uncle Milos and his wife Nada had a son called Pavel, my and Petr’s first cousin.

  10. Petr referred to Eva Sklenckova, our cousin on Mother’s side whose married name later became Simkova, as Eva II.

  11. Wishes for the Jewish New Year.

  12. Our father, Otto Ginz, had four siblings: two brothers, Milos and Slava, and two sisters, Herma and Anda. Aunt Herma married Karl Levitus.

  13. Felix Bardach, Petr’s classmate.

  14. The Day of Atonement, a Jewish holiday and fast day.

  15. Maniny was where Petr probably spent most of his free time. It’s not a location in Prague Holesovice, as the name would seem to suggest, but dead-end river branches and canals framing Rohansky Island—the word “manina” (from the Czech “chodit mani”—indicated a landscape without roads, which one could criss-cross freely, i.e., however one chose). One of the local canals was filled during the war with city rubbish. Gradually, the river branch and all the canals were filled, so that Rohansky Island is in reality no longer an island.

  16. Sukkot is the Feast of Tabernacles, a Jewish holiday commemorating the forty years the Jews spent wandering in the desert during which time they dwelled in huts.

  17. Ota Sklencka, brother of Eva II, our cousin on Mother’s side. Later a well-known Prague actor.

  18. Miluska and Jirina—our father’s cousins—married two brothers, Otta and Pavel Hansel. Petr writes about them as “the Jirinas” and “the Miluskas.” Both families, including the four-year-old Pavlicek, were assigned to one of the first transports of the year 1941. They were sent to Lodz in Poland, all to be killed.

  19. Our grandmother had many old engravings—Grandfather used to own an antique shop—which Petr and I often coloured with watercolours.

  20. Chanukah is the eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the successful revolt of the Maccabees against religious oppression during the reign of Antiochus IV in the second century C.E. The main ritual of the holiday is the lighting of candles.

  21. We called our mother Mancinka.

  22. A separate hood with a pointed tip, tied under the chin.

  23. Bozena Sklenckova, Mancinka’s sister, Eva II’s and Ota’s mother.

  24. The diary ends with the entry of August 8, 1942, a month before Petr’s transport to Theresienstadt.

  25. Translator’s note: U stare skoly = By the Old School; this is the original Czech name of the street, changed to Kelly’s Street under the Nazi regime.

  26. “The Night on the Whale.”

  27. One of the subjects at school was religious education.

  28. A flyer was inserted in the diary “An Dich, Prager Hausfrau—For You, Prague Housewives!” calling for the collection of kitchen waste and rubbish.

  29. Pesach, or Passover, is the Jewish holiday commemorating the Jews’ exodus from slavery in Egypt in about 1235 B.C.E. The holiday begins with a festive meal called a seder.

  30. Translator’s note: The so-called Treuhandstelle was founded by the Nazi authorities. It was an organization attached to the Prague Jewish Community whose task was to collect and store the property of deportees.

  31. Petr inserted in his diary a newspaper clipping with an article about Winston Churchill, where he underlined expressions that were characteristic of the demagogical journalism of the time. (For example: “gravedigger of the British Empire,” “vulgar English suspicion,” “he crowned his lies and cheating with a new arrogant lie,” “he was a masterpiece of drunken madness and satanic guile,” and so on).

  32. Bet Ha’am, a Jewish institution, the so-called “People’s House.”

  33. “Blessing” in Yiddish, from Hebrew “brachah.”

  34. Support service

  35. “The mighty God called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined.”

  36. Akciz—tax on import of food into towns, metaphorically also the border of the taxed area.

  37. “Did you laugh?”

  38. Transla
tor’s note: this can mean both “we lead” and “we are winning.”

  39. Slojzka, from the German Schleuse—sluice gate, was the name of the place where transports were received and sent off.