Pavel Weiner – Diary of Hope

As a boy, Pavel Weiner helped others survive the Holocaust through his secret diaries.

As a boy, Pavel Weiner helped others survive the Holocaust through his secret diaries. Children, unfiltered, uncensored, and open-hearted, often have an incredible ability to notice details and speak the truth. Even when the world shows its darkest side, they can still believe in a brighter future. Pavel Weiner did just that.

Born in Prague in 1931 to a Jewish family, Pavel spent three years of his childhood in the Terezin ghetto, from ages 10 to 13. Terezin, in Czechoslovakia, was a Nazi transit camp during World War II. About 141,000 Jewish people were sent there. Disease, hunger, and overcrowding killed around 33,000. Another 88,000 were deported to other camps, where most were murdered. In the middle of this, Pavel wrote a diary, holding on to his hope and humanity.

Before the war, the Weiner family enjoyed a rich cultural life. They went to museums and concerts, traveled, and played sports. Pavel had an older brother, and his father was a successful businessman. In Terezin, he tried to keep up family traditions, spending time with his parents, brother, and other relatives. But over time, most of them were taken away and killed.

The Nazis used Terezin as a propaganda tool. They wanted the world, especially the Red Cross, to think it was a “model” Jewish town. Before inspections, they cleaned the streets, set up fake shops and cafes, and staged concerts. While this tricked many visitors, the children living there told the truth through their secret writings and artwork.

Pavel slept in Room 7 with nearly 40 boys. They were often forbidden to go to school or even leave the room. Most of their lives took place on their beds, sleeping, reading, playing, writing, and drawing. They also had to do forced labor for the Nazis.

To cope, the children created 10 secret magazines. They filled them with diaries, poems, stories, drawings, and paintings, capturing life as it really was and how they hoped it could be again. Pavel was one of the main contributors to Neshar, a magazine created by his roommates. The boys called themselves “Nesharim,” Hebrew for “eagles.” On Shabbat, they would share their magazine, but eventually they had to hide it to avoid Nazi punishment. Pavel’s writings showed his maturity, hope, patriotism, and belief in truth.

Determined to keep learning, Pavel studied Hebrew, Czech, English, French, math, history, and geography. He even traded his scarce food rations for piano lessons. His diary captured everything, his search for food, his love for learning, his thoughts about family and friends, and even the everyday worries of a teenage boy.

But fear was always present. Pavel often wrote about the dreaded “transports,” trains that took prisoners away. No one knew where they went, only that people rarely returned. “I wonder if I’ll ever see them again,” he wrote when friends or family were taken. Toward the end of his time in Terezin, a few transports returned. One brought back a relative of Pavel’s, starving, weak, and deeply traumatized. The sight left a lasting mark on him.

Of the 40 boys in his room, only 10 survived the Holocaust. In Pavel’s own family, only he and his mother lived. Everyone else was killed.

That Pavel could keep learning, writing, and imagining a better future in the middle of such horror is a powerful example of human resilience. His diary shows a boy who refused to let cruelty erase his hope. Even in the darkest moments, Pavel Weiner believed that truth, love, and humanity would one day prevail. On his 13th birthday, he wrote about the memory of his brother’s bar mitzvah celebration in a synagogue in Prague, along with this poem:

"Perhaps a day will arrive
When the farmer returns to his work
When a dream returns to the child
I am thirteen years old, I can be called a man
The time has come when one’s life
Must change a little
However, humanity will win
The Fourteenth year will be a merry one."

Through this and other writing, Pavel left behind a record for young people today on how to use the lessons of history to repair the world.

References:
Alexander, Elaine K. “Boy’s Diary from Terezin Expresses Hope and Despair.” St. Louis Jewish Light, 19 Jan. 2021, stljewishlight.org/arts-entertainment/boys-diary-from-terezin-expresses-hope-and-despair/.
“Pavel Weiner: Boy Chronicler of Terezin, Part 1 - Butterflies in the Ghetto.” Butterflies in the Ghetto - Stories of the Artists of Terezin Concentration Camp, 1 Nov. 2015, www.butterfliesintheghetto.com/pavel-weiner-boy-chronicler-of-terezin-part-1/.

Key words:
Arts, Justice, Courage, Perseverance, Freedom, Responsibility, Challenge Injustices, Stand Up for Your Beliefs

Explore ARTEFFECT projects about this Unsung Hero:
Pavel Weiner Artworks