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Thursday
Yom HaShoah - Holocaust Remembrance Day

On this emotionally charged day / I choose to write about / the Czech / artist / painter / illustrator / and cartoonist / Bedrich Fritta's book / "Tommy". / I bought this book / for myself last year / when my daughter was preparing for her school trip / to the concentration camps in Poland. / Fritta drew the images in the book / while he was imprisoned in the "model Jewish resettlement" / Theresienstadt / for his son Tommy's / third birthday. / The book / discovered after the war / hidden in the concentration camp / is an ode to a father's love for his son. / A testament of optimism / and hope. / On the last page he writes to his son / that this book would be the first / of many to come. / The Nazis discovered / Fritta's drawings / bearing witness / to the horrifying reality of Theresienstadt / and sent Bedrich Fritta to Auschwitz / where he died. /