Vedem

Vedem (In the Lead) was a Czech-language literary magazine that existed from 1942 to 1944 in the Terezín concentration camp, during the Holocaust. It was hand-produced by a group of boys living in the Home One barracks, led by editor-in-chief Petr Ginz. Altogether, some 700 pages of Vedem survived World War II.

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. 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."

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