The Diary of Petr Ginz: 1941-1942

by Petr Ginz and Tiffany Clarke Harrison

Book Overview

Lost for sixty years in a Prague attic, this secret diary of a teenage prodigy killed at Auschwitz is an extraordinary literary discovery, an intimately candid, deeply affecting account of a childhood compromised by Nazi tyranny. As a fourteen-year old Jewish boy living in Prague in the early 1940s, Petr Ginz dutifully records the increasingly precarious texture of daily life. With a child's keen eye for the absurd and the tragic, he muses on the...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0871139669
• ISBN13: 9780871139665
• Release Date: April 2007
• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 1.28 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.8" x 8.5"
• Age Range: 10 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 5 and higher

Customer Reviews

The Monument of a Gifted Boy in a Terrible Time

Although the Holocaust diaries of adult writers contain greater historical detail, those of children and young adults give us a perspective of what it is like to be a person in the early years of life, full of both fear and hope. Petr Ginz was a remarkable person in so many ways, a talented artists, writer, humorist, and reporter. His artistic legacy is one of a young man who faced unimaginable adversities with courage, dignity, and hope (even when there was little reason to hope). This beautiful diary covers Ginz's life in Prague, as the Nazi stranglehold creates new social and economic restrictions against the Jewish population with each passing day, and continues with life in Terezin, what was supposed to be a model ghetto but was, in truth, a model of Nazi lies and deception. Petr's sister, Chave Pressburger, who survived the war, adds notes on the underground newspaper he edited at Terezin, Vedem. (For further information on Vedem, I heartily recommend the book "We Are Children Just the Same." A little over a half century later, Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon selected a copy of Petr's most famous work, Moonscape, as one souvenir to take aboard the space shuttle Columbia. It was that mission that ended in tragedy, the spacecraft disintegrating as it entered Earth's atmosphere. I like to think that both these great dreamers have reunited in Heaven, united in their dreams for a peaceful and just world.

Another Anne Frank

An excellent book!!!This book will eventually be a Classic.I can't say more than it's a must have if you are a history buff.

What Petr could have been?

A very thought provoking account of the holocaust. At such a young age Petr inspires through his art, poetry, boyish nature and keenness to learn. Such a clever boy could have grown to be an amazing man and no doubt, if given the opportunity, would have contributed a lot to the world. Unfortunately he was murdered at Auschwitz at age 16 so we are left with a two year snippet of life as he saw it. His account of Prague during the occupation is very matter of fact, which is very poignant in itself, as it seems almost a natural state of being to Petr. His diary provides a unique insight into the systematic erosion of his rights and the rights of the Jewish community, and the seemingly endless transportation of his friends and family. Sad and cruel. But I'm glad the diary was uncovered and I was able to experience a part of Petr even if in such a small way.

This Must Be Read

This book must be read by both young and old. It will touch your heart and soul. I was moved to tears many times while reading.

Petr Ginz's Legacy lives on

In reading numerous Holocaust accounts, one is struck especially by the tragic loss of young lives, who had yet to experience the richness of life...Petr Ginz is one such soul. The Diary of Petr Ginz is a chronicle of a 14 year-old boy's day-to-day life under Nazi occupation in Prague. The entries themselves are brief, but are accompanied by Petr's poetry and illustrations, a testament to this young boy's talent, and resilient spirit. His diary chronicles his life between 1941-1942, and ends in Aug 1942, prior to his being deported to Thereisienstadt where he was incarcerated for two years before being sent to a tragic end at the Auschwitz death camp. One can't help but feel a sense of impotent rage at the Nazi monsters that robbed so many innocent souls of a life meant to be lived, especially at the senseless killing of ones so young, and in Petr's case, and many others, possessing such talent that would have enriched the world. This is a remarkable diary, in the vein of the diary of Anne Frank, and other Holocaust diaries that prove the resilience of the human spirit during a dark period in history.