Creative Therapeutic

Research Article

Creative Activities in the Terezín Ghetto: A Case of Boys from Heim L417

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https://doi.org/10.54963/ct.v1i1.1317
Mašát, M. (2025). Creative Activities in the Terezín Ghetto: A Case of Boys from Heim L417. Creative Therapeutic, 1(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.54963/ct.v1i1.1317
Volume 1 Issue 1 (2025)
Copyright (c) 2025 Milan Mašát
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Authors

  • Milan Mašát

    The Department of Czech Language and Literature, Palacký University, 77900 Olomouc, Czech Republic

Received: 1 April 2025; Revised: 10 May 2025; Accepted: 18 May 2025; Published: 30 May 2025

This study focuses on the exceptional cultural and mental activities of boys interned in the Terezín ghetto during World War II, specifically through their secret magazine Vedem. Created within the L417 home, the magazine served as a space for literary, artistic, and philosophical self-reflection. Through poems, fairy tales, essays, and drawings, the young authors expressed their longing for freedom, the loss of home, reflections on the meaning of human existence, as well as depictions of everyday life in the ghetto - often infused with irony and humor. The study demonstrates that these creative activities had fundamental therapeutic, existential, and community-cultural value: they helped the boys preserve their human dignity, reinforced their identities, and allowed them to escape into the world of imagination. At the same time, Vedem functioned as a form of spiritual resistance to Nazi oppression and dehumanization. The magazine thus becomes more than just a historical document - it stands as proof that even under the extreme conditions of genocide, children are capable of creative expression, critical thought, and resistance through language and culture. Moreover, the study highlights the universal significance of children´s creativity in extreme historical situations, where cultural production becomes a means of survival, solidarity, and humanity.

Keywords:

Children´s Creativity Terezín Vedem Cultural Resistance Holocaust Experience

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