Vedem
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Vedem'' (''
e Are E, or e, is the fifth letter and the second vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''e'' (pronounced ); plur ...
In the Lead'') was a Czech-language literary magazine that existed from 1942 to 1944 in the
Terezín Terezín (; german: Theresienstadt) is a town in Litoměřice District in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 2,800 inhabitants. It is a former military fortress composed of the citadel and adjacent walled garrison town ...
concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...
, during the
Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...
. It was hand-produced by a group of boys living in the Home One barracks, among them editor-in-chief Petr Ginz and Hanuš Hachenburg. Altogether, some 800 pages of ''Vedem'' survived
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
.


History of the magazine

The magazine was written, edited, and illustrated entirely by young boys, aged twelve to fifteen, who lived in Barracks L417, or Home One, which the boys referred to as the Republic of Shkid. The content of ''Vedem'' included poems, essays, jokes, dialogues, literary reviews, stories, and drawings. The issues were then copied manually and read around the barracks on Friday night. For some time, it was also posted on the barracks bulletin board; however, it was decided to discontinue this practice because it was deemed dangerous in case of SS inspections. The inspiration for the authors of ''Vedem'' was their teacher, twenty-eight-year-old "Professor" Valtr Eisinger, who was appointed to supervise the boys in that barracks. He fostered their love of literature and encouraged them to express themselves creatively, describing both what they witnessed (often in a humorous tone) and their hopes for the future. It was probably under his influence that the boys adopted a rocket ship, inspired by Jules Verne, flying past a book to a star, as the symbol of their barracks and of their magazine. 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. One of the outstanding contributors to ''Vedem'' was "nz," or Petr Ginz (1928–1944), who at 14 was editor-in-chief of the magazine. At 16, Ginz was deported to Auschwitz, where he was gassed. A drawing by him of the planet
Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...
as seen from the
Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...
was taken by
Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
i astronaut
Ilan Ramon Ilan Ramon ( he, אילן רמון; , born Ilan Wolfferman ; June 20, 1954 – February 1, 2003) was an Israeli fighter pilot and later the first Israeli astronaut. Ramon was a Space Shuttle payload specialist of STS-107, the fatal mission o ...
onto the Space Shuttle ''Columbia'', which disintegrated upon its reentry into the Earth's atmosphere. 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, " Football is the best game, right after
Monopoly A monopoly (from Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situation where a speci ...
." In one edition, a review of ''
Uncle Tom's Cabin ''Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly'' is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in two volumes in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the U ...
'' compares the fate of
African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
slaves with that of the Jews in Terezín, noting that until the deportations began, African-Americans had it worse because their families were torn apart; afterward, the suffering of the two groups became approximately equivalent. In the popular feature "Rambles through Terezín", Petr Ginz visits various institutions throughout the Ghetto, and interviews people there. His rambles include visits to the bakery, the maternity hospital, the fire station, and a very chilling ramble to the crematorium.


Preservation and publication

By 1944, most of the inhabitants of Barracks L417 had been deported to the
gas chamber A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing humans or other animals with gas, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. Poisonous agents used include hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide. History ...
s 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 it in a blacksmith shop where his father had worked, and brought it back with him to Prague after he was liberated. After the war, efforts to publish ''Vedem'' were thwarted under the communist regime of Czechoslovakia, but excerpts were smuggled to
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
, where they were printed in the Czech émigré magazine ''Svĕdectví''. A type-written
samizdat Samizdat (russian: самиздат, lit=self-publishing, links=no) was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the document ...
version was published in
Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...
that same year, and re-released in the 1980s. This version was exhibited in the
Frankfurt Book Fair The Frankfurt Book Fair (German: Frankfurter Buchmesse, FBM) is the world's largest trade fair for books, based on the number of publishing companies represented. It is considered to be the most important book fair in the world for internationa ...
in 1990. Selections from ''Vedem'', illustrated by art that appeared in the magazine and that was created by other children in Terezín, were published with an introduction by
Václav Havel Václav Havel (; 5 October 193618 December 2011) was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and former dissident. Havel served as the last president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1992 and then ...
in
1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...
as ''We Are Children Just the Same:'' Vedem'', the Secret Magazine of the Boys of Terezín''. The editors of this selection included Kurt Jiři Kotouč and Zdenĕk Ornest, two of the original contributors from Terezín.


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. .


References


External links


The website about the magazine ''Vedem'' (www.vedem-terezin.cz)


{{italic title Literary magazines published in the Czech Republic Defunct magazines published in Czechoslovakia Defunct literary magazines published in Europe The Holocaust Magazines established in 1942 Magazines disestablished in 1944 Czech-language magazines