According to the Nuremberg Nazi law, in the year 1944 when I was 14 years old, my parents had to turn me in to the Nazi authorities who imprisoned me in Terezin. Until the age of 14 I was exempt from the transports due to the fact that my mother was not of a Jewish origin and therefore my blood was "mixed". All other acts of persecution and prohibitions relating to Jews were valid for us too, the "mishlings" (half-caste). As my brother Petr was two years older than myself, he was transported to the concentration camp two years before me.

I met him in Terezin just for a brief time and I could, even if just for a limited extent, to observe the intensity of his activities. Even in the very harsh conditions in Terezin, he was the editor of Vedem magazine, he wrote and painted and he wanted to make sure that the spirit of creative and positive attitude would not be destroyed as long as the body was still alive.

Sixty six years later, not 14 years old anymore but eighty, I opened the web pages of your Prirodni school. It was for me a happy moment. I saw that you understood what was the real purpose of the striving of these boys, and that you realized that the struggle between good and bad and between oppression and freedom has been always continuing. By devoting yourselves to that topic and identifying with those who created Vedem, most of whom did not survive, you are fulfilling a very important mission. It is even more than talking or writing articles, it is the most important thing: You set yourselves up as a model to others.

Chava Pressburger  (sister of Petr Ginz)