Vedem

Vedem ([We Are] In the Lead) was a Czech-language literary magazine that existed from 1942 to 1944 in the Theresienstadt Ghetto in the town of Terezín, during the Holocaust.

For some time, it was also posted on the house 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 house .

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 house and of their magazine.

A copy of his drawing "Moon Landscape" was taken by Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon onto the Space Shuttle Columbia, which disintegrated upon the reentry.

The material included poetry, adventure stories, essays, and book reviews, as well as popular features such as the "Quote of the Week," chosen from among silly things the boys said.

In one edition, a review of Uncle Tom's Cabin compares the fate of African American slaves with that of the Jews in Terezín, noting that until the deportations began, African-Americans had it worse because their families were torn apart; afterward, the suffering of the two groups became approximately equivalent.

After the war, efforts to publish Vedem were thwarted under the communist regime of Czechoslovakia, but excerpts were smuggled to Paris, where they were printed in the Czech émigré magazine Svĕdectví [cs].