Day trips - Prague and the Czech Republic - page 165

petr ginz, young artist and Writer
Born in 1928 to a Jewish father and non-Jewish mother,
Prague teenager Petr Ginz excelled at art and was a talented
writer who penned numerous articles, short stories, and even
a science-fiction novel. Petr was sent to the concentration
camp at Terezín in 1942, where he edited the secret boys'
publication Vedem (We Are Ahead) , writing poetry and draw-
ing illustrations, and paying contributors with food rations he
received from home.
Some of Petr's artwork and writings were preserved
by Terezín survivors and archived by the Jewish Museum in
Prague. In 2003, Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut and
the son of a Holocaust survivor, took one of Petr's drawings—
titled Moon Country —into space aboard the final, doomed
mission of the space shuttle Columbia.
The publicity over the Columbia's explosion and Petr's
drawing spurred a Prague resident to come forward with a
diary he'd found in his attic. It was Petr's diary from 1941-1942,
hidden decades earlier by Petr's parents, and chronicling the
year before the teen's deportation to Terezín. The Diar y of Petr
Ginz has since been published in more than 10 languages.
In the diary, Petr matter-of-factly documents the increas-
ing restrictions on Jewish life in occupied Prague, inter-
spersing the terse account with dry humor. In the entry for
September 19, 1941, Petr wrote, “They just introduced a special
sign for Jews” and drew the Star of David. He continued, “On
the way to school I counted 69 'sheriffs,'” referring to people
wearing the star.
Petr spent two years at Terezín before being sent to
Auschwitz, where he died in a gas chamber. He was 16.
Today, Terezín is an unforgettable day trip from Prague for
those interested in touring a concentration camp memorial and
museum. Allow three to six hours to see the entire camp. With
more time, stop in the nearby, attractive town of Litoměřice (see
page 171) for lunch before returning to Prague.
Cost, Hours, Information: The 200-K č combo-t ic ket inc ludes
all parts of the camp. Most sights, including the Museum of the
Ghetto, Magdeburg Barracks, and Hidden Synagogue, are open
daily April-Oct 9:00-18:00, Nov-March 9:00-17:30. The Colum-
barium and Crematorium are closed Sat. The Crematorium opens
at 10:00 year-round and closes at 16:00 Nov-March, and the Small
Fortress opens at 8:00 year-round and closes at 16:30 Nov-March.
Tel. [phone], mobile [phone], www.pamatnik-terezin.cz.
Eateries: In Terezín town, the Parkhotel Restaurant is the
most elegant place for lunch (daily 10:00-22:00, around the block
from the Museum of the Ghetto at Máchova 163, tel. [phone]).