Monday, January 3, 2011 The Diary of Petr Ginz 1941-1942 by Petr
Ginz, edited by Chava Pressburger, published in English in 2007
Petr Ginz was 14 when he was transported to the Thereisenstadt
concentration camp from his home in Prague and 16 when he was
killed in Auschwitz. In 2003 a Prague resident came forward with
Petr Ginz’s diary and exercise books that contained fiction and
drawings which had been hidden and forgotten. Petr’s sister,
Chana Pressburger, a resident of Israel who had also been
interned at Thereisenstadt, authenticated the two notebooks and
the handwriting and then served as the editor for the first
Czech edition and subsequent translations of the diary. Petr
wrote in the diary from February, 1941 to August, 1942. He made
his last entry two months before being deported to
Thereisenstadt. Even though his mother was not Jewish, his
family observed the Jewish holidays and seemed very close to
Petr’s father’s large extended family. Petr’s entries are often
terse. They frequently come across as