How was "Kamarad" created?
Several children’s newspapers were published in the Theresienstadt Ghetto, amongst them were “Vedem” and “Kamarad”.
“Kamarad” was published in a dormitory where German and Czech-speaking boys and girls lived together. The children wrote 22 of issues of “Kamarad”, without any help from their instructors. Ivan Polack edited and illustrated the newspaper.
In this excerpt from "Kamarad", Ivan Polack describes how the newspaper was created.
Read and Think:
Why did the children make an effort to write a newspaper, despite their hard living conditions? What important role did the newspaper fill in their lives?
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How was "Kamarad" created?
What are the differences between “Kamarad” and a regular newspaper?
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“At home, a newspaper was prepared in several offices, printing presses and workshops. The “Kamarad” was created in the simplest way possible on my own bunk. While at home you needed quantities of paper, printing ink and various machines, I only needed two sheets of paper, ink, pen, pencil and some water-colors […] “Getting the written material is another exhausting phase of the production. An issue is just published and immediately I call out loud the dreaded sentence: “Material, material, I don’t have material for the next issue!” As Monday begins, and I don’t have a thing yet, I declare: “Damn it, if you don’t write, then “Kamarad” will not be published on Friday!” Finally, someone moves. It's usually Midelias that scribbles a poisonous article about some poor soul in illegible handwriting with his elephant’s grip . The article is written on toilet paper and I have to spend an hour deciphering his handwriting. (I usually get a headache afterwards).” |
