The boy, the camps and the space shuttle.

[TIGER88]

An interesting story, relating to a young boy who died at KZ Auschwitz...



The boy, Petr Ginz, lived In Prague during the early 1940's. His diary was discovered in extraordinary circumstances in the attic of an old house in Modrany, Prague several years ago. The diary has been edited by his sister, Chava Pressburger, who now lives in Israel, and released as a book entitled "The Diary of Petr Ginz". An English language version is available for those interested.

All I wish to do with this thread, is briefly explain the events that led to the discovery of the diary, rather than spoil any content matter from the actual book, which I would recommend to those with an interest in the area.

The NASA space shuttle Columbia, which sadly broke up upon re-entering the Earth's atmosphere on February 1st, 2003 with a loss of all seven crew members, had onboard Ilan Ramon, a former Israeli fighter pilot. Prior to the mission, Ramon had contacted Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, and requested a piece of documentation relating to the Holocaust, so that he could take it with him into space. Ramon's mother and grandmother were survivors of the Auschwitz camp. Whilst aboard Columbia, Ramon carried with him a sketch entitled "Moon Landscape" (an image of which is shown below), drawn by Petr Ginz, the young boy who spent time in Theresienstadt, before finally at the age of sixteen, being transported to Auschwitz where he was murdered in the gas chambers. A Bergen-Belsen survivor's miniature Torah scroll was also amongst the related pieces that Ramon took into space.

Amazingly, a section of Ramon's space diary survived the disaster, pieces of which were recovered and returned to his widow.

Following the disaster, which occured on what would have been Petr Ginz's 75th birthday, Czech news TV reported the link to Prague and the young boy's drawings, prompting someone from Prague to contact the museum. They offered to sell six exercise books full of the young boy's sketches and writings. The items had been found during a house clearance that the owner had undertaken several years prior. After emailing some samples of the writing and sketches to the Yad Vashem museum, they were verified as original by Ginz's sister, who later went on to edit the diary notes and write the book of her brother's story.

Regards,

Carl

[Woolgar]

This is fascinating Carl. That diary sounds like a must read !

Nick

[FALLSCHIRMJAGER]

WoW!!! That really is a wonderful if not tragic peice of history on all levels. I for one will be getting a copy to read and be humbled by! Fantastic thread, thanks

[TIGER88]

Thank you gents. I acquired my copy from the memorial museum at Terezín, but imagine that the book is readily available. If you would like ISBN codes etc, let me know.

Regards,

Carl

[Scout]

What a story. Interesting info about the Shuttle crewmember too.