By reading the children's newspapers, we can learn about the way that the children dealt with daily life in the ghetto. In Theresienstadt, a number of newspapers were published, amongst them Vedem and Kamarad.
The Kamarad ("Comrade") periodical was published in Q609, the children's barrack shared by Czech and German speaking boys and girls. The 22 bulletins of Kamarad were written by children in their childish handwriting, and illustrated by the editor, Ivan Polak, without the assistance of the madrichim. The objective of Kamarad, like other children's periodicals, was to entertain, provide reading materials, and impart knowledge.
Read the following sources and watch the testimony on video. When you are finished, you can discuss the questions in the next paragraph:
Source A: Pischkollonne
What is a Pischkollonne? It originates from a Greek word, pisch, meaning "to run", "ko", meaning "trousers", and "lona", meaning "wet" [the actual meaning is pischen, which means "to urinate" in German slang, and Kollonne, which means a line of soldiers]. There are three different types of Pischkollonne: daytime, evening, and night.
- A daytime Pischkollonne: this is completely ordinary and mainly occurs alone… The morning Pischkollonne is already more interesting, but it actually belongs more to the nocturnal Pischkollonne about which we will speak later…
- The evening Pischkollonne is announced after the detective stories, at about 10 o'clock, and the entire heim goes out to take part in it, with only the lazy ones staying in their beds and either waking up at night with wet pants or running throughout the whole night.
- Night Pischkollonne. You wake up. It's a dark night. You need to go urgently, so you pull off the warm blanket and look for the ladder. If something falls on your head, you realize that you have to crawl along a different path, and when you finally feel the ladder, you go down. Perhaps, if you're lucky, you manage to leave the room alive and only partially disabled. When you reach the toilet, you realize with horror that it's locked. You walk, no, you run in the dark to the second toilet next to the washroom. It may be a bit flooded, but you don't care. Suddenly Pepa Kremer, Jerka Frankl or some other madrich pops up from behind the corner of the balcony, and you've already got Heiseltura [toilet duty]. Since you have to go to the toilet no matter what, you decide to go out to the yard. It is a difficult path, full of the unknown… and I'll describe it in the next bulletin. I therefore advise you to buy a subscription to the next issue of Kamarad, otherwise you may not be able to get hold of it.
Bondy, "They Called It Friend", p. 75-76
>Source B: The fun corner
The country which manufactures the most cars: Russia-USA-UK
Napoleon died in: alba-St. Helen- Medira
The St Martenik Island belongs to: UK-Portugal-France
Titian was:Author- Poet- Artist
Ontario is : Lake- City-Swamp
Bondy, They Called It Friend, (Heb.), p. 89
First part
- List the names of 20 large cities that begin with the letters A or B.
- List 10 rivers in North America.
- List 10 famous people whose names begin with the letter M.
- List 5 well-known operas and their composers.
- List all the artists and sculptors that you know.
Hand in your answers to the editorial board by March 2nd. Answer honestly without using an atlas. The correct answers will be published in the next issue and will win a prize.
Yours,
Zgabanina [editor Ivan Polak's nickname]
Source C: The Deportations
"The transport [September 6, 1943] came all of a sudden, like lightning. It took about twenty of our boys, among them some of the best in the home. But nothing could be done about it.
Evening came, the time when the announcements about who was to be on the next transport were supposed to be given. We all waited anxiously for Hunza Jochovitz, who was the one who received the notices. The first group that was announced included many boys. In the second group, which came later on in the evening, there were already fewer boys. We went to bed upset, because the summons for the reserves were supposed to come the next morning. And indeed they came. Throughout the morning, the boys that were to be on the next transport packed and we helped them.
The day arrived where they had to report to the station. Some of them presented themselves at Q319, others at Hamburg [barracks], at L417 and at Dresden [barracks]. Panic reigned throughout the city. Finally everybody was in place.
…The first evening without our friends; every word echoes through the home in such a strange and haunting way."
Bondy, They Called It Friend, (Heb.), p. 28
Source D: Advertisement and Announcements!
I will exchange a beautiful doll for a helping of hasa (chopped meat mixed with flour and water). Contact: Filth Above Everything! (Nickname)
Clause 1: It is forbidden to respond to the sentences such as "Who will go to the children's kitchen?" etc. with answers such as: "He's a donkey". Anyone who does not obey these instructions will get a slap from someone present in the room.
Clause 2: There must be silence by 21:00, so that the "sleepies" can get some sleep. He who disobeys this rule will be turned over to the madrich(counselor) Blayer.
Clause 3: Everyone wants the monitor on duty to finish on time, so everyone must get up at 7 o'clock
Source E: Sports
The ninth round in the Terezin league
A.Z.*-HaGibor Prague 4:2
Prague-Vienna 6:1
Jugendfirzorga- HaGibor Terezin 14:1
This competition took place on Wednesday and was more of a comedy than a game. J.F. [Jugendfirzorga] had a great advantage and all of their players except Brada and Meyer scored goals. Although Brada played aggressively, he did not score a goal, and Meyer missed a penalty kick. J.F. played well (it wasn't difficult). I won't speak about H.T. [HaGibor Terezin]
*The name of a Jewish sport organization in Czechslovakia that was very successful in different areas of sport and was on an Olympic level in swimming.
Bondy, They Called It Friend, (Heb.), p. 67
The two sports pages featured a description of the game between the cooks and the work center (7:1), the results of the tenth round in the Terezin League, after 10 games: In first place are the cooks, in second place the clothing warehouse workers - both teams with 9 victories each - in 11th place HaGibor Terezin, and in the last place Vienna.
Bondy, They Called It Friend, (Heb.), p. 72
On January 26 they declared a ping pong competition in our heim. The barrack was divided into a league and into Group A and Group B. The entire heim participated in this competition. The first round was decided through a lottery:
| League |
Group A |
|
|---|
| Han Pollack |
Klein-Pik |
Viner-Beihabi |
| Shulhof- Wasserman |
Y Gross-Feldman |
P Gross- Gruta |
| Bak-Mautner |
Freund-Kurtz |
T Gancz- Y Gancz |
| |
|
Levi- Shmurel |
| |
|
Schwartz-Sternitz |
In the next edition, we will inform you of the results. Hurrah for sports!
Bondy, They Called It Friend, (Heb.), p. 115
Source F: The Deportations
We remember…
A year has already gone by since many of our friends from the Hanover barrack were forced to leave. Perhaps you remember the boys who would still be among us if it weren't for fate that carried them off far away from us. A whole year has already passed since they left the home and disappeared from our sight, but they will never disappear from our hearts, never!
Bondy, They Called It Friend, (Heb.), p. 140
