The Diary of Petr Ginz [Hardcover]

Chava Pressburger (Editor), Elena Lappin (Translator), Jonathan Safran Foer (Introduction)

Book Description

Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up

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 prank he played on his science class and then just pages later, reveals that his cousins have been called to relinquish all their possessions, having been summoned east in the next transport. The diary ends with Petr's own summons to Thereisenstadt, where he would become the driving force behind the secret newspaper Vedem, and where he would continue to draw, paint, write, and read, furiously educating himself for a future he would never see. Fortunately, Petr's voice lives on in his diary, a fresh, startling, and invaluable historical document and a testament to one remarkable child's insuppressible hunger for life.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The diaries of Petr Ginz, a 14-year-old Czech Jew who died in Auschwitz in 1944, resurfaced in 2003 after nearly 60 years in obscurity. Now edited by his sister, the diary covers 11 months preceding Ginz's deportation to the Theresienstadt concentration camp. The entries, along with poems and artwork, demonstrate the young man's determined spirit, imagination and intellectual precociousness. With much that is mundane about his life in Prague—the weather, visits with family and friends, school assignments and grades—the diary also reveals Ginz's prankish and entrepreneurial sides (he initiates a school lottery) and his observations of resistance against the German occupiers and their acts of savage reprisal. Ginz also records the progressive deportations of those he knows to either Theresienstadt or to the Lodz Ghetto. This volume also includes excerpts from Vedem ("we lead"), a weekly periodical Ginz created in Theresienstadt. Pressburger's helpful, if at times sketchy, notes and annotations to the diary include a summary of the fates of Ginz's family, neighbors, schoolmates and friends. While Ginz's diary lacks the expressions of the rich inner life of Anne Frank's, it is a moving and valuable addition to the personal literature of the Holocaust. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Petr Ginz was a 14-year-old Jewish boy living in Prague. Six exercise books full of his writings and drawings were found in a house in Prague in 2003. Lappin, who translated his diaries from Czech, relates that he wrote daily reports in 1941 and 1942, the period before his deportation to Thernstadt concentration camp. There he continued to draw, paint, write, and read until he was sent to Auschwitz in 1944, where he was killed at age 16. (Pressburger, who edited the diaries, is Petr's sister.) There are watercolors and linocuts, including illustrations of the novels of Jules Verne (his favorite author), the first part of one of Petr's novels, and a list of his literary writings. There is a long poem about the humiliating Nazi laws Jews were forced to accept, which satirizes not only the absurdity of the rules themselves but also the Jews' ability to live with them, and 11 family photographs. Also included is a list revealing the fate of his relatives and friends. This extraordinary personal diary is an important document. George Cohen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press; 1ST edition (April 10, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0871139669
• ISBN-13: 978-0871139665
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #139,039 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #15 in Books > History > Europe > Czech Republic
  • #28 in Books > Children's Books > History > Holocaust
  • #28 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Historical > Holocaust

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Petr Ginz's Legacy lives on, March 29, 2007

By 

Z Hayes (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Diary of Petr Ginz (Hardcover)

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.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What Petr could have been?, April 15, 2008

By 

T. Smith "Aussie Goddess" (Kyneton, Victoria, Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Diary of Petr Ginz (Hardcover)

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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Must Be Read, October 11, 2007

By 

LyonR (Oregon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Diary of Petr Ginz (Hardcover)

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.